Sir Hew Pike Sir, Magnus Linklater (Comment, October 8; see also letters, October 13) concludes that the decision to cease so-called arms plotting (the posting of whole battalions of infantry from one station to another every few years) is wrong.

An equally respected Chief of the General Staff, Sir Nigel Bagnall, who had started his career in the infantry but later transferred to the cavalry, attempted the same modernisation 20 years ago but, despite his rigorous intellect and determined character, he was seen off by conservative forces within the infantry.

To my mind, the present CGS is finally grasping this same nettle, with even fewer resources at his disposal than in Bagnall’s day. Even assuming 40 battalions in the Order of Battle, a system of constant unit posting and change of role is simply not operationally effective, because too many battalions are consequently unavailable for operations at any given moment, thus placing unreasonable pressures on those that are.

Moreover, there is ample evidence that teamwork and fighting spirit are unaffected by a system of individual postings between battalions which combine their own distinctiveness with membership of a larger regional or functional regimental grouping.

It is this arrangement that the CGS and his staff are now planning to put in place, and the infantry, not least those Scottish battalions that are amongst the most tribal but least well recruited, will fight better for it.

Finally, let me assure Magnus Linklater that counter-insurgency skills have everything to do with training and leadership and very little to do with the perceived merits of the “regimental family”.

Yours faithfully,
HEW PIKE,
(GOC Northern Ireland, 1998-2000),
Bentley, Hampshire GU10 5NE.
October 13.

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