Planes Trains and Automobiles- The British Army and 'Tractable'

As the nation pauses to remember the sacrifices made in war by the armed forces, the British Armed Forces continue to be deployed on exercises and operations across the globe. Even 74 years after the end of WW2 they remain committed to work on every continent on the planet supporting the UK and wider coalition interests.

One of the most significant exercise commitments this year has been the British Army and ‘Tractable’  (sometimes referred to as either ‘Op’ or ‘Exercise’ but without a title on the British Army website. This major undertaking has been running for some weeks now and has highlighted how the British Army continues to excel at undertaking large scale movements of units in order to be ready to conduct operations as required.

The genesis of Tractable was the need to rotate assets out of Estonia and send new vehicles from the UK in their place. It is often overlooked that the UK now has over 900 British Army personnel permanently stationed in Estonia as part of wider NATO work to help send a strong signal to deter aggression from nations like Russia – which given its recent history of attacking and invading other countries and acting in a remarkably uncivilised manner is certainly required.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

The Baltic states are relatively small population wise, and although proportionately they spend a lot on Defence, and are very committed to supporting NATO operations, there is a finite limit to what they can do to defend themselves. To help alleviate the risk and threat, the UK and other nations have developed an enhanced forward presence in this area to help try and reassure of the NATO commitment, and also remind Russia that an attack on one Baltic state is also an attack on NATO more widely.

For the British Army the purpose of Tractable was to show that it retains the ability to generate and deliver forces a considerable distance from the home base and then stand them up as a warfighting asset. Over 200 vehicles, hundreds of troops have moved, overseen by 104 Logs Bde and a plethora of liaison officers and support staff based across Europe.

This may sound an obvious and straightforward thing to say, but investment in logistical tail is rarely something that features in many peoples ‘fantasy Army ORBAT’ threads that litter the internet. Most people focus on combat power, looking at how many tanks or self propelled guns an Army has and then considering what this means for its combat power from there.

For the British Army, the investment in heavy armour, APCs and artillery is important, but equally so is the important in assets like logistics enablers – the ability to lift by train or sealift in order to actually get the Army where it needs to be, and not stuck somewhere irrelevant. The purpose of Tractable has as much been to test that the Army can still do this well, and that the various enablers work as intended to deliver a force that can fight.

In practical terms this has meant a focus on areas that often get relatively little attention. For example the skills required to pull vehicles out of storage, conduct road and rail moves across Europe and then deliver them to Estonia are complex and perishable. There is a lot of work required to ensure that a train can be safely loaded with the right armoured vehicles and then sent through the Channel Tunnel for onwards travel.

This work often puts significant responsibility in the hands of very junior soldiers who are responsible for ensuring that millions of pounds of equipment is safely handled and put in place properly. One slip up could have huge consequences and potentially cost lives as well. It is only by practising this activity regularly that it can be done safely and effectively for real though.

In the case of Tractable what it has demonstrated is the critical importance of the Royal Logistics Corp to the wider British Army. While logistics may not be a supremely ‘sexy’ subject to many people, being able to ensure that the Army has the right equipment, people and training to be able to do this sort of work is essential – without it, things would rapidly grind to a halt.

Similarly, Tractable has helped focus attention on other critical capabilities like strategic sealift. The use of the ‘POINT’ class strat ro-ro ferry force to help move vehicles across the channel and into Emden (and then onto Estonia) has helped show how key these vessels are to British Army capability. 

Without them it would be much harder to do the complex business of deploying overseas. Here too we are also reminded of the critical importance of units like 17 Port and Maritime Regiment, one of the most unusual (and vital) units in the Army today, responsible for co-0rdinating the sealift and deployment of vehicles around the globe.

This has also been a good opportunity to test the ability to bring UK vehicles out of storage from Germany, where there is still a large stored force, and ensure they can be deployed effectively. With the demise of ‘British Forces Germany’ and the associated loss of manpower and formed units, this is a good chance to test that the model of having vehicles in store works and can be activated quickly for operations.

Another area that has been tested is the ability to fly troops into theatre and deploy them, as was demonstrated by 16 Air Assault Brigade who flew a company of Paratroopers  from the UK to Estonia and then jumping in with their colleagues from the Estonian Defence Force to help show the ability to rapidly respond to a crisis.

When coupled with the deployment of Army Air Corps Apache helicopters too, this has helped send a significant message of reach and intent to any foes. It has also acted as a helpful reminder that the UK retains a not inconsiderable air assault capability, and a highly potent air to air refuelling capability too which can ensure these sorts of operations can occur quickly.

This matters because it helps reaffirm the ability of the British Army to deploy significant forces globally in a variety of levels. From carrying out Company scale airborne operations through to deploying a formed armoured division overseas, the UK has invested heavily in the logistics to make this work.

This sort of test is also crucial because it helps make sure that the Army can carry out this sort of operation and identify any areas for improvement. Moving large armoured units around is not something most countries do on a regular basis, and even fewer move their forces overseas. Tractable has helped continue to confirm that the British Army is one of the few army’s out there with the ability to deploy considerable forces overseas at a time, and place, of its choosing.

A wider point that Tractable has helped make is the critical importance of NATO partners in operations. Much of what has been demonstrated has been about working closely with allies to facilitate routine operations. This is only possible due to the ability of NATO nations to work closely together, sharing standards, commonality of equipment and communications and having a clear understanding of how each nation can work together.

What is often forgotten about NATO is that it has spent 70 years helping dozens of countries formulate a commonly agreed set of operating principles and procedures that underpin so much of what is done. Without this sort of well-established relationship, moving an armoured force across Europe would be significantly harder.

In a week when the French President appeared to question the political utility of NATO and Article 5, it is clear that from an operational perspective, it would be very hard indeed to replace without decades of work to rebuild what already exists and works at operational and tactical levels.. While in a way it is depressing that 30 years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism the British Army still needs to practise reinforcing Europe against the renewed threat of Russian aggression, it is reassuring to know that NATO still exists as a credible Alliance to handle these risks.

A final point about Tractable is that it is worth noting just how good a job the British Army has done in terms of showcasing the activities of the units involved and the individuals behind this. The main page on Tractable is HERE and is well worth a read. Full of great imagery and short punchy videos, it highlights in a really good way the point of the deployment and the people behind it.

From a recruitment perspective it seems particularly good at showing how young junior soldiers are being given huge responsibility and enormous job satisfaction to do their jobs. It is a great advert for the amazing career opportunities on offer with the British Army and will hopefully tempt more people to sign up for either full or spare time careers.

Tractable has been a quiet success story for the Army – it may lack the visible punch of things like the firepower demonstration day held the other week, and it may not be as exciting to some as things like news of the order of the Boxer APC (which in itself is very good news), but it is critically important to ensure the Army can still work as a global force. As noted, there are very few countries out there which could carry out this sort of deployment, despite some commentators obsessions with ‘league tables’ showing that the UK doesn’t matter because it only has X tanks not Y tanks etc. It is not the size of the force that matters, but whether you can use it where you want that counts.

The confirmation of the importance of investment in logistics and both sea and air lift will help reinforce the perspective that the UK may have a smaller headcount than some countries but its ability to turn up and operate anywhere it chooses remains almost unparalleled. In a world where too much focus is on shiny stuff that goes bang, it is helpful to be reminded that this is pointless without logistics to enable it to occur.