Thread by @David0Graham

“The head of the UK’s armed forces has urged private sector cyber specialists and data engineers to sign up as reservists to help fill gaps in the military’s tech capabilities.”

A similar drive makes perfect sense in an Irish context.

@RDFRepAssoc

ft.com/content/350919…

However, while we have even worse cyber gaps than our UK counterparts, we lack the legal & administrative framework, cultural flexibility & political will to use reservists to fill them. As our defence & security needs expand into the digital domain, we need to be more adaptable.

“Where we would like to get to is that we no longer distinguish between regulars and reservists particularly . . . that we have a spectrum of commitment from full- to part-time service.”

In the UK, regular personnel can transition to reserve service while keeping their army no.

In Ireland, similarly smooth talent retention mechanisms do not exist. Politically, operationally and administratively, the full-time and part-time components of the Defence Forces are treated as entirely separate organisations. "Single Force Concept" is a slogan, not a policy.

“If you’d asked me five years ago how many data scientists and data engineers we wanted, I probably would have thought you were teasing me.”

Like the UK, Ireland’s defence & security needs are changing at breakneck speed. RDF tech experts from industry can help us to keep up.

However, instead of exploiting the opportunities offered by highly cost-effective, flexible reservists, we are allowing the RDF to wither on the vine. Prospective recruits are waiting 18+ months with no communication. Many have walked away. Who knows what skills have been lost?

“The cutting-edge skills needed to compete are often found in the private sector rather than the military’s own ranks.”

When we value something, we measure & document it.
@IRLDeptDefence does not capture reservists' skills because it does not value them.

It does not value them because it has no intention of ever using them. #Covid19 has proven that - it has been an unprecedented national crisis that has left the vast majority of reservists watching the DF effort on TV and Twitter instead of experiencing it first-hand.

Nevertheless, 2021 may prove to be an inflection point for @dfreserve. This year, @IRLCoDF can offer the vision, and @simoncoveney the political will, to turn things around and finally give the RDF a meaningful role.

If this does not happen it is hard to see a future for the RDF given its current critically low strength levels. The full burden of meeting Ireland's #defence needs will fall to the PDF, which is struggling to maintain its high operational tempo due to ongoing retention problems.

Ireland is not alone in reducing the size of its DF, but it is doing so from a very low base. By thinning the ranks of the PDF and abandoning the RDF to its fate, we're letting cost savings & political inertia leave us vulnerable to a broad spectrum of security challenges.

/ENDS