CHIEF EXECUTIVE REPORT

Although this report is written in the main to reflect the specific work of RFCA NI over the past year, I am mindful of our wider responsibilities and contributions in support of Reserves and Cadets in Northern Ireland and, indeed, the wider Defence family and, notably, our Veterans.   Our role in supporting veterans brings particular challenges which I will highlight as I review the activities of our staff during that past year.

Let me begin, however, by focusing on our primary ‘constituency’, namely Reserves and Cadets. While many of their achievements are covered elsewhere in this report, I would like to highlight and commend their impressive response to the challenge of working against the unprecedented backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Across Northern Ireland units have done everything they can to stay in touch with their reservists through virtual training and engagement initiatives, and with some impressively innovative approaches to training. Thankfully, our units have, at the time of writing, all returned to running relatively normal programmes, with camps once again being conducted across the UK.  

We are delighted to note that great use is already being made of HMS HALFORD, the Thiepval navigational and maritime procedures training facility in Thiepval for which RFCA secured funding.  

There is no doubt that numbers have been adversely affected during the pandemic as individuals ‘lost the habit’, but attendance is being steadily rebuilt.  The picture varies across Northern Ireland and there is clearly much work to do.   

As this Report details, the year just past has seen an impressive list of overseas as well as UK-based operational deployments over and above the significant numbers on Op RESCRIPT (the MOD’s support to the nation during the COVID pandemic). 502 Sqn alone has deployed 22 individuals on RESCRIPT, an extraordinarily high proportion of its overall numbers. Other deployments include soldiers on Op TOSCA in Cyprus, Op CABRIT in Estonia and Op SHADER in Iraq; sailors in the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean on HMS MEDWAY; on HMS TRENT in Gibraltar, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as well as the Carrier Strike Group in the Far East and airmen and women on Op TORAL in Afghanistan, the Falkland Islands; Op KIPPON in IRAQ and on Op PITTING  – the extraction of UK nationals and refugees from Afghanistan.  A Squadron Leader also deployed as the lead primary health care specialist on Ex SPRINGHAWK supporting the Red Arrows. 

Concerns over recruiting levels for the Army Reserve continue to be writ large across the UK. While levels for the Royal Navy and RAF raise fewer concerns, they appear to have flat-lined. Here in Northern Ireland, things are a little rosier, although some recruiting challenges stubbornly remain. Medical units in particular face difficulties in maintaining their desired activity levels at a time when so many of their reservists are facing huge demands in their civilian workplaces. In response this is an area in which we are endeavouring to add transferrable value, for example as NI prepares its contribution towards projected deployment in Mali late next year. 

We await details of how the recently completed Integrated Review will affect the Reserve in general and individual units in particular but, with the reduction of regular numbers by c.10,000 from c.82,000 and with no change in delivery of capability, the future expectation for and of the Reserve is evident.  

Throughout, whether the activity was on operations, exercise, training or deployments, our Northern Ireland reservists have maintained the platinum standards which have come to be their trademark in support of Defence outputs. 

Turning to the Cadets; despite some extraordinary and admirable programmes of engagement throughout the pandemic, numbers across the cadet organisations have inevitably decreased. However, we are already seeing rapid return and projections are going in the right direction and, already, all CCFs are back up and running and reporting good numbers.  

Encouragingly, adult volunteer recruiting is exceptional, the principal challenge being the processing of new applications and induction of new volunteers.  All of that applies to all cadet movements, although the Sea Cadets do seem to be in a remarkably good position.