INTRODUCTION: – Brigadier (Retd) Peter Gilbert QVRM TD DL VR, Chair, South East Reserve Forces’ & Cadets’ Association
SERFCA (along with all the RFCAs) faces a challenging year. In addition to our steady state tasks we will support the delivery of the 30X30 expansion of cadets, continue to run the cadet expansion programme (for new CCFs), support and occasionally enhance the deteriorating reserve and cadet estate with diminishing resources, prepare to transform into a Non Departmental Public Body of the MOD and probably adopt a new overarching IT system. The Armed Forces Day national focus will be in Hampshire, and all our County ACF camps will be facilitated, supported and visited in Lydd. Then there will be the events, exemplified in late 2025 by the unforeseeable loss of the Sussex ACF County Training Centre and the challenge to all cadet activities in the vicinity of Crowborough Camp following its unexpected change of use.
But as we enter 2026 I ask you to focus on another of our roles – communication. The 2025 SDR contained the first ever mention of the RFCAs. It was noted that one element of “building society’s understanding of what the Armed Forces do and increasing their visibility” will be “public engagement days” and that “the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations will be a [sic] valuable organisation in delivering this engagement”. While being mentioned at all is positive, the SDR statement absurdly underplays our potential, which is far more about our network and communication channels than organising the occasional engagement day.
Very few readers of this update will have failed to register the stark messages towards the end of 2025 from the Defence Ministerial Team, the Chief of the Defence Staff, the Head of MI6 and others, which the embedded AI in my computer’s Google search spontaneously and neatly summarised by saying they “emphasize an era of complex, interconnected threats (tech disruption, hostile states, cyber warfare) requiring whole-of-society responses, increased focus on tech fluency, national resilience, and collaboration to protect democracy and prosperity…”
But is the UK population hearing?
RFCA networks extend deep into society placing us well to transmit the UK Defence vision. In time we expect to receive “lines to take” or orders from our MOD sponsors, (though as yet we have not been asked even to add an extra engagement day). In the interim we will use our judgement in selecting key elements of Defence messaging which are already established in the public domain to highlight and disseminate through our regional channels.
So as we start 2026 our top line message is that the UK and the European and other “Western” democracies face a real and rapidly increasing existential threat.
As the Prime Minister said in his introduction to the SDR:
“The fundamental truth is clear: a step-change in the threats we face demands a step-change in British defence to meet them… but our response cannot be confined to increasing defence spending. We also need to see the biggest shift in mindset in my lifetime: to put security and defence front and centre…”
And the Defence Secretary’s foreword to the SDR:
“The world has changed. The threats we now face are more serious and less predictable than at any time since the Cold War, including war in Europe, growing Russian aggression, new nuclear risks, and daily cyber-attacks at home”.
We will use this monthly update to bring messages and themes to you throughout the year and we ask every one of you to mobilise your professional, organisational and personal networks to share them far and wide. Our county members often ask how they can add value. My answer is to be active in our network – to communicate – please start here, today.