The South African Army’s Vision 2020 strategy
On Tuesday, the South African Army unveiled Vision 2020, its vision for a new strategic plan for the future. I didn't attend the briefing, so I don't know all that much about it yet, but what I've seen so far has been fairly interesting. I'll be writing a bit more about it in the coming days, but these are my initial thoughts.
The first thing to remember about this though is that it's not a concrete plan for anything as yet. Instead, it's a foundation to help guide the SA Army's planners in their evaluations and proposals, which will culminate in a more concrete description of the Army's future structure, equipment and force employment. A similar process is being undertaken by all the branches of the SANDF, and this in turn should lead into a long-overdue Parliamentary Defence Review, which will determine the required defence force funding and equipment purchases for the future.
Yet even so, the initial Vision 2020 outline is notable for the suggestions it makes for the SA Army's future structure. I'll outline a few things I found most interesting.
The main suggestion is to recreate the Army's field divisions, which were disbanded a few years ago in a short-sighted move to reorganise the SANDF along "corporate lines". I had always regarded that decision as particularly imbecilic, and it's nice to see the Army's top brass agrees with me. Basically, for an army that regularly deploys its forces in external operations, it makes absolutely no sense to not have field commands or divisions. This is because these field divisions are geared entirely towards deployment and force employment, which means that is where their expertise is concentrated. Moreover, their organisational structure is optimised for a combat deployment, as opposed to the bureaucratic administration of most other army commands (such as training). So instead of the current situation, where deployments are handled and commanded on an ad-hoc basis with ill-defined lines of command and units being split up for deployment (a very bad idea), the re-establishment of field commands should result a far more effective and efficient way to deploy the Army's forces.
At the moment, the idea is that two divisions will be created, one motorised and one mechanised, as well as a special operations brigade. The motorised division will be a light infantry division, being very lightly armoured with low logistics requirements. As such, it is intended for use mainly in peacekeeping operations, and anti-crime or homeland security operations within SA. In contrast, the mechanised division will be the Army's "iron fist", an armoured force of infantry, tanks and artillery designed for the full-spectrum of land-based conventional warfare.
The special operations brigade is interesting, because it's not entirely clear what is being intended. Some media sources refer to it as a special forces unit, yet in the SANDF that capability is concentrated within the Special Forces Brigade, which is (contrary to popular belief) not part of the army but rather an independent unit under the control of the Chief of Joint Operations. I think the most likely explanation is that the new special operations brigade is intended to be a home for light airborne and assault infantry, namely 44 Parachute Regiment and 6 South African Infantry battalion, and perhaps others. This new brigade would likely also be given a level of amphibious assault capability, and would essentially act as a rapid deployment force, establishing safe conditions for a larger force to arrive in. Ideally, this brigade should have its own armoured support unit for greater firepower, though I'm not sure what the Army's plans are on that.
Ultimately though, the suggestions are good ones, and it's encouraging to see the Army putting some serious thought into a realistic force structure for the future. I certainly hope they manage to maintain the momentum, because if the current force structure and funding continues for much longer, we'll wake up in a few years time to a broken and undeployable defence force. That's something I don't want to see.
- Darren Olivier
The first thing to remember about this though is that it's not a concrete plan for anything as yet. Instead, it's a foundation to help guide the SA Army's planners in their evaluations and proposals, which will culminate in a more concrete description of the Army's future structure, equipment and force employment. A similar process is being undertaken by all the branches of the SANDF, and this in turn should lead into a long-overdue Parliamentary Defence Review, which will determine the required defence force funding and equipment purchases for the future.
Yet even so, the initial Vision 2020 outline is notable for the suggestions it makes for the SA Army's future structure. I'll outline a few things I found most interesting.
The main suggestion is to recreate the Army's field divisions, which were disbanded a few years ago in a short-sighted move to reorganise the SANDF along "corporate lines". I had always regarded that decision as particularly imbecilic, and it's nice to see the Army's top brass agrees with me. Basically, for an army that regularly deploys its forces in external operations, it makes absolutely no sense to not have field commands or divisions. This is because these field divisions are geared entirely towards deployment and force employment, which means that is where their expertise is concentrated. Moreover, their organisational structure is optimised for a combat deployment, as opposed to the bureaucratic administration of most other army commands (such as training). So instead of the current situation, where deployments are handled and commanded on an ad-hoc basis with ill-defined lines of command and units being split up for deployment (a very bad idea), the re-establishment of field commands should result a far more effective and efficient way to deploy the Army's forces.
At the moment, the idea is that two divisions will be created, one motorised and one mechanised, as well as a special operations brigade. The motorised division will be a light infantry division, being very lightly armoured with low logistics requirements. As such, it is intended for use mainly in peacekeeping operations, and anti-crime or homeland security operations within SA. In contrast, the mechanised division will be the Army's "iron fist", an armoured force of infantry, tanks and artillery designed for the full-spectrum of land-based conventional warfare.
The special operations brigade is interesting, because it's not entirely clear what is being intended. Some media sources refer to it as a special forces unit, yet in the SANDF that capability is concentrated within the Special Forces Brigade, which is (contrary to popular belief) not part of the army but rather an independent unit under the control of the Chief of Joint Operations. I think the most likely explanation is that the new special operations brigade is intended to be a home for light airborne and assault infantry, namely 44 Parachute Regiment and 6 South African Infantry battalion, and perhaps others. This new brigade would likely also be given a level of amphibious assault capability, and would essentially act as a rapid deployment force, establishing safe conditions for a larger force to arrive in. Ideally, this brigade should have its own armoured support unit for greater firepower, though I'm not sure what the Army's plans are on that.
Ultimately though, the suggestions are good ones, and it's encouraging to see the Army putting some serious thought into a realistic force structure for the future. I certainly hope they manage to maintain the momentum, because if the current force structure and funding continues for much longer, we'll wake up in a few years time to a broken and undeployable defence force. That's something I don't want to see.
- Darren Olivier
posted by Marko at 3/13/2006 07:43:00 AM
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