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Soldiering: The Military Covenant
Chapter 2

The Context

• General
• Future Land Operations
• Technology
• Demographic Issues
• The Law
• Ethics
• The Impact on Soldiering

General

0201. Engendering and fostering fighting spirit remain fundamental to the ethos of the British Army. However pressures on this ethos are steadily increasing. Changes in both the nature of military operations and the cohesion, structure and attitudes of society are particularly significant for an army which has to depend on volunteers for its existence. The challenge for the Army is to articulate the fundamental and unique demands of battle and the requirements for maintaining the fighting spirit needed to be effective in it. Together these make demands of the individual different from those in contemporary society at large. Soldiers are required to subordinate their individual aspirations, rights and needs to those of the team and the higher purpose. If it is to recruit the right soldiers, the Army must deliver its responsibilities in the Military Covenant, demonstrating that it is technologically advanced; highly trained; second to none in the quality of its soldiers; based on merit and successful; and that the required high standards of mental and physical robustness, discipline, impartiality, integrity and loyalty are justly rewarded. This requires not only a clear vision of the demands of future operations, but also a genuine understanding of current pressures on society in general and soldiers and their dependants in particular.

Future Land Operations

0202. Future adversaries embrace a very wide range of possibilities. Their capabilities may be radically different, but not necessarily unsophisticated. Many are likely to be well equipped, technologically advanced and prepared for very protracted campaigns. There will be no neat classification of warfare by type; opponents will employ doctrine, tactics, techniques, structures and equipment from the entire range of capabilities, often simultaneously, and shift focus from one to another. There is unlikely to be symmetry of ends, ways and means between opponents. Weapons of mass destruction will remain an important dimension, in intra- as well as inter-state conflict. Future military operations offer increased opportunity and necessity for manoeuvre. Military operations on land will not take place in isolation, but in a battlespace which is the whole volume in time, space and activity, in which war will be fought or operations conducted. Future operations include the fight for perceptions, hearts and minds implicit in information operations, including psychological operations. They will also include economic warfare, and the decisive fight for control of the electro-magnetic spectrum. Ultimately however, warfare and other military operations will re-main essentially a battle of wills, and moral strength and dominance, the decisive imposition of will, are central to success.

0203. Though decisive action will often occur at sea or in the air, lasting and decisive presence, morally and physically, occurs principally within the land environment. It follows that land operations may continue for very long periods, even decades. By the same token the soldier may be in battle for very ex-tended periods, and remain in the combat zone at the end of each task or mission. This burden on the individual adds to the human stress common to all combat. Social, economic and legal structures compound the land environment’s natural complexity and friction. Increasing urbanisation is a particular challenge of the land environment. The omnipresence of non-combatants and especially the media has a particular impact on land operations. It exposes the responsibility of every soldier as a weapon bearer, and means that the actions of any soldier may often have political, strategic or operational implications far beyond the locality of the tactical activity. Accelerating technological development compounds these challenges in all aspects of military capability.

Technology

0204. Advances in technology, offering individual soldiers and platforms greater firepower, protection, and access to information, will all contribute to making the battlespace more dispersed. Sensor technology and optics make operations increasingly possible in all weather and terrain, and at night. Information technology developments will transform C3 and ISTAR, requiring command and control systems that can deal with the ever-growing quantity of information, in all environments, 24 hours a day. Offensive and defensive command and control warfare is of ever increasing importance. Global communications and media increase the exposure of all military operations to public opinion. New materials and fuels give vehicles greater range and mobility, and enhance the tempo, speed and range of manoeuvre. Weapons and munitions continue to increase in range, precision and deployability, blurring the distinction between direct and indirect fire systems. Unmanned platforms may reduce the risk of casualties, but raise issues of accountability. Proliferation increase the threat of opposing high technology weapons, including weapons of mass destruction. Genetic engineering will increase the lethality and accuracy of biological weapons. Relatively undeveloped countries, irregular forces and terrorists will have state-of-the-art weapons, communications and information systems and other high-technology equipment, and know how to use it. Conversely, high technology systems can be countered with stealth and terror, using weapons that are easy to make but difficult to find or identify, particularly in complex terrain. Maintaining moral as well as information dominance will rank as important as physical protection. The technological developments which transform the tempo, range and speed of operations will make increased demands on sustainability. As operational structures become more modular and autonomous, they will also break down the distinctions between combat, combat support and combat service support elements. The developments which give both individual soldiers and platforms greater tactical mobility and range, also increase their deployability.

Demographic Issues

0205. Demographic changes in the United Kingdom pose significant challenges. The two major trends are longevity and declining birth rate. In 1910 only one in 20 of the population was over 65. By 1994 they were more than 3 in 20, and the proportion is rising. By 2005 30% of the population will be between 45 and 65, and by 2021 those aged 65 and over will rise to nearly 5 in 20. In the same period the proportion of the population aged 16-39 will fall from 35% to under 30%. This fall will mean very sharp competition for people. The shift in the ratio of those working to those who are retired will have profound economic effects. The proportion of the population with personal experience of the Armed Forces is falling fast. Between 1944 and 1964 6.3 million men and women entered the Armed Forces. Including their families, perhaps 20 million people had direct contact with the Armed Forces. In comparison, between 1974 and 1994 the total entry was 660,000, implying a pool of a mere 2 million with direct contact over a 20 year period.

The Law

0206. Law changes. War, other operations and Armies are all subject to developing international, national and military legal codes. The legitimacy of operations in complex situations is often difficult to identify or establish, especially when world-wide information networks allow challenges from almost any origin. The right of the individual state to use force unilaterally is also susceptible to challenge. In recent years the range and scale of employment and social legislation that may be applied to the Army has changed radically. Individual rights are enshrined in legislation which seeks to eliminate discrimination. By placing more emphasis on individual rights than on collective responsibility, much domestic and European legislation may impact adversely on the operational effectiveness of the Army. Soldiers differ from civilian employees because success in military operations, when the price of failure may be death, requires the subordination of the rights of the individual to the needs of the task and the team, albeit within a legal framework. There is a need to balance the demands of operational effectiveness and the ethos which underpins it, with the rights of the individual enshrined in legislation. The application of any legislation to the Armed Forces must be assessed in terms of its impact on the Moral Component of Fighting Power, so that appropriate exemptions can be sought where necessary.

Ethics

0207. British soldiers no longer come from societies which share broadly common roots and horizons based on traditional, usually Christian ethics and morals. Traditional ethics can be widely regarded as reactionary and authoritarian. Contemporary morality puts a higher premium on individual rights than on duty to society. Notions of duty or obligation are much less apparent, except in terms of respect for the rights of others. Material rewards play an ever greater part in the benefits expected by individuals in return for their labour. The rise of the importance of the individual in society, and the associated stress on the rights rather than the responsibilities of the individual has profound implications for the Army. Established structures and traditional principles are questioned. So even those who volunteer to be soldiers, do not necessarily share common standards and values. Hence it is fundamental to the Military Covenant that the Army is responsible for identifying and articulating its ethical tenets, adjusting as appropriate to wider change, and inculcating and sustaining them in its soldiers.

The Impact on Soldiering

0208. Soldiers of all ranks will have increasing responsibility, influence and significance in battle and other operations. They are likely to be more dispersed, and operate in greater isolation than ever before. Their smallest actions may have operational, strategic or even political implications. Many operations will require new attitudes, thinking and skills from all ranks. In Conflict Prevention and Post Conflict operations the variety of other actors and factors involved, and the absence of a defined enemy mean that soldiers may have to forego the obvious military response which would be natural in battle. Success may be much more difficult to measure or define, and the mission may be to avoid the very need for violent military action of the sort which is the aim in warfare. This will require considerable subtlety and self-denial from all ranks, in addition to the traditional military qualities demanded in battle.

Traditional distinctions between front and rear, and between combat, combat support, combat service support and command support elements will reduce, as more soldiers of all arms face similar personal risks and responsibilities on operations. All ranks will have unusually heavy demands made on their initiative, innovation, adapt-ability, resourcefulness, humanity, moral courage and judgement. Soldiers will become more reliant on technology as it develops, which will demand yet more of them. In turn it can make them more deployable, more battlespace aware, better protected, more mobile, more lethal and more potent. Increased reliance on technology for situational awareness, rather than soldiers' own senses directly, will be a particular challenge in the land environment, where the presence of so many other actors and agencies demands human contact and accountability. Commanders will have unprecedented technical means to impose their will when and where they choose.

This will influence the location of the leader in battle, and the staff. Battle Staffs may become smaller, and the growing numbers of information managers and analysts may be more remote from the contact battle. The demands of liaison and language will increase, as will the challenge of maintaining the essential values and standards of the British Army while serving alongside or under the command of others. As crises and operations develop, missions, Rules of Engagement and military posture are likely to change. Soldiers of all ranks must be able to cope with ambiguity, uncertainty and change, and still operate purposefully to be successful. All this will demand ever greater flexibility of the individual soldier, and hence soldiers' dependants, as they must expect far-flung deployments at short notice.

0209. While recognising these trends, the Army's doctrine, structures, equipment and training must remain focused on what is ultimately for the individual the most dangerous, physically demanding and threatening of military tasks: fighting in the all arms battle and achieving success in war. Soldiers of all ranks must prepare for the human demands of battle, in order to succeed in other operations. Meanwhile the challenge of obtaining, retaining and sustaining sufficient high quality officers and soldiers grows, and can only be met by the Army's (and hence the Nation's) clear commitment to the moral as well as material needs and aspirations of the individual, judged against the values and standards required to achieve operational success. The nation and the Army must fulfil their responsibilities in the Military Covenant, maintaining the morale and physical well-being of soldiers, their families and dependants. These are based on the core and enduring tenets of the British Army.

It is a shame that Crown Copyright prevents reproduction to a wider audience, and technically I suppose that this article is in breach even though it is available on the web. Our population at large needs to understand WHAT this argument is all about to support campaigns like that of RBL. We need to be grateful that CGS at the time (General The Lord Walker) directed that such a doctrinal publication should be produced to encapsulate all those intangibles with which people grapple and also to the current CGS, who also happened to be ACGS at the time in 2001-2002 for bringing it to the fore so prominently. In my opinion, the Military Covenant is not really understood by the Nation, poorly interpreted by the Press Corps and largely ignored by the current Government. This Covenant, even if it were achieved in full on both sides, still remains a dynamic covenant, and as so clearly stated in paras.0201 and 0209, it must be quickly responsive not sluggishly reactive to change. I have learnt a surprising amount during my research of this topic, one about which I knew about instinctively, but had never seen written. Perhaps it behoves us all in the retired community to read about this a little more, so that we speak with greater conviction and support those who are trying to repair the damage to the Military Covenant? Author: Pat Conn

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