Bosnian test for Army's supply-side strategy

THE ARMY is to run its support operations - a pounds 2bn a year enterprise - on commercial lines. More than one-third of the 1,800 troops going to Bosnia next month will be logisticians, whose task is to keep the Army fit to fight or, as in the case of Operation Grapple as it will be known, to keep the peace.

General Sir John Learmont, the Army's Quartermaster General, outlining the strategy yesterday, said that the new organisation was the outcome of the Army Board's Logistic Support Review of 1990-91, the first since the Esher Report of 1904, which analysed the lessons of the second Boer War (1899-1902).

Operation Grapple, to escort UN relief convoys into parts of Bosnia as yet unexplored since the crisis erupted, will be the first test of the new system, although the new Royal Logistic Corps - bringing five of the Army's support corps together - will not form until April next year.

The Army's heavy equipment - including 45 Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles and 20 Scimitar light tanks - will probably still go to Croatia by sea and on into Bosnia. But it emerged yesterday that the Army is looking at resupplying the force, which will operate north of Sarajevo, by rail through Germany and Austria.

General Learmont said that his mission to 'sustain the Army in peace and war' cost pounds 2bn a year. Each year he acquired the same amount of spare parts and supplies as Shell, while his stock value was many times greater than that of Shell, British Coal, British Rail, or British Airways.

The new organisation brings logistic support into a single structure which helps commercial disciplines and corporate planning. The Army has started 'market testing' its support operations, to measure them against commercial standards. 'We see substantial savings resulting from this,' the general said.

Supporting the Army falls into two areas: keeping equipment operational - the job of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers - and keeping soldiers fed, supplied with ammunition and fuel, and happy. About 10,000 REME soldiers will continue to support and maintain equipment. But supporting the people will be the job of the new Royal Logistic Corps, which will combine five present corps and number 26,000, regular and reserve.

These are the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, which supplies ammunition and defuses unexploded bombs, shells and mines; the Royal Corps of Transport, which carries heavy loads to the front-line troops; the Royal Pioneer Corps, which guards logistic bases behind the lines; the Army Catering Corps; and the Postal and Courier Service of the Royal Engineers. General Learmont said that, under the old system, the RAOC procured spares for any piece of equipment - such as a helicopter - but REME had to do the repairs. Under the new organisation, RLC personnel from the former Ordnance Corps will be attached to REME - the equipment support corps.

REME will retain its old badge and name. The new Logistic Corps has a badge which incorporates those of all five corps; the RAOC shield, two pioneer axes, the RCT wreath and the motto of the Army Catering Corps - 'we sustain'.

Yesterday, the corps that will amalgamate to form the new organisation were showing off their skills at the Quartermaster-General's Headquarters at Andover in Hampshire. A Catering Corps corporal who was serving quiche from a field kitchen commented: 'It's quite appropriate, really.'

(Photograph omitted)