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NAVAL PERSONNEL
The
Navy’s 'Second Sea Lord and CINC Naval Home
Command' is responsible for all naval manpower
matters. With a nation having no serious
current unemployment problems, the Royal Navy
is competing for high grade people against
attractive other careers. The key word is
'quality' as highly intelligent officers and
ratings are essential to man the ships – and
the same applies to the Royal Marines and RFA.
'Stretch'
(long periods away from UK) is a matter of
some importance as, though sailors and marines
will respond to good leadership, they can be
pushed (stretched) too far – good pay or
even Financial Retention Incentives (FRIs is
the slogan) are not enough. The Fleet has been
stretched for many years and has continued to
perform satisfactorily but personnel numbers
have been falling. As mentioned above, the
size of the Fleet has also been reducing
following the end of the Cold War but it is
now needs to stabilise at its present level in
support of UK government policy.
Over
a similar period as the 'Fleet First'
initiative discussed previously the Second Sea
Lord’s department has been undertaking a
fundamental study of today’s and
tomorrow’s personnel problems. The long term
vehicle for strategic management change in the
Naval Service is called 'Tomorrow’s
Personnel Management System – Topmast' and
the aim has been to look very carefully into
the future using a team drawn from all levels
of officers and ratings.
One initiative already underway in surface
ships is to group junior ratings of the three
main branches (Warfare, Engineering, Supply)
into 'Squads' in individual ships. For
example, a Warfare Squad will have about 1.3
times the number of personnel to fill the
posts in the complement, allowing the margin
to be sent on leave, do courses ashore or
undertake advancement training without
affecting the fighting efficiency of the ship.
The system is managed by the ship’s
officers, so that all involved are treated as
valuable individuals.
LOGISTIC
AND MAINTENANCE SUPPORT FOR THE FLEET
Separate
logistic support for the three Services ended
in 2000 with the establishment of the Defence
Logistics Organisation (DLO). The DLO’s
mission is to provide joint logistic support
to the UK Armed Services and employs about
30,000 personnel, of whom about 7,250 are
uniformed (45% of uniformed personnel are R.N.
officers and ratings). The DLO supports all
equipments, systems and platforms in service
with the Navy and its five agencies all
support the Fleet. These agencies are:
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Warship Support Agency. This is the
principal agency that supports the Fleet.
-
Equipment Support (Land). Support for
Royal Marines
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Equipment Support (Air). Support for
Fleet Air Arm.
-
Defence Supply Chain. Food, Stores and
Ammunition
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Defence Communications. All voice and
data services, including Satcom.
The
majority of RN personnel in DLO work in the
Naval Bases and are managed by the Warship
Support Agency (WSA). The WSA was set up in
April 2001 and has its Headquarters in Abbey
Wood, Bristol with other elements at Bath,
Rosyth, Exeter, Pembroke Dock and the three
Naval Bases. The WSA’s annual budget is
about £2 billion and fixed assets are valued
at over £7 billion.
The
support of modern warships as different and
complex as nuclear submarines, carriers and
minesweepers is a vast subject and is outside
the scope of this brief summary. However, an
example of a major operational problem with
huge implications was the discovery of a
serious nuclear plant defect in HMS Tireless.
Every UK nuclear submarine (16 of them) had to
be checked and this involved close
co-operation between a wide variety of
authorities both service and civilian. The
highly successful repair programme was managed
by WSA.
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