The Government announcement that the Republic is about to join Partnership for Peace will, over the next decade, radically alter the role and structure of the Defence Forces as this State moves to provide a part of a NATO-led European defence structure.
Partnership for Peace is described thus in the British Ministry for Defence paper Stable Forces in a Strong Britain: "The objective of the `Partnership for Peace' (PFP) is to enhance security in Europe by deepening political and military ties between NATO and central and eastern European states.
"The PFP programme offers close co-operation in fields such as the preparation of forces for use in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. Participation in the programme will also assist those partners who aspire to NATO membership in the evolutionary process leading to their integration."
At present the Republic's membership of a military alliance such as PFP is largely academic. The Army simply does not have the equipment to allow it to participate in major exercises or operations.
The Defence Forces' primary military commitment is to the United Nations in Lebanon (UNIFIL), where it has about 650 troops, and in the recent past the Army has had difficulty in finding sufficient volunteers to fill this small battalion-sized commitment.
Fulfilling the terms of membership of PFP, Army sources say, will require a major redefinition of resource commitment.
Exercises conducted under the PFP auspices would require a much larger troop commitment than with the UN in Lebanon. The Army will also require a major investment in military hardware. This re-equipment programme was under way well before the announcement on Thursday that the State would be joining PFP.
The Army has only two armoured personnel carriers (APCs), whereas a modern mechanised infantry battalion would be expected to have at least 40. To rectify this and to put the Army in a position where it would be able to produce a mechanised battalion the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, last autumn announced the planned acquisition of 40 APCs. Competition for the supply of the vehicles is in its final stages, and the first of the new carriers will arrive later this year.
The Army should then be in a position to provide an infantry group of battalion size, at least, for service in such operations as former Yugoslavia. At present, the Defence Forces' commitment to the NATO peacekeeping exercise in former Yugoslavia is on the "micro" scale with a detachment of about 50 military police in Sarajevo. Even this has caused difficulties as it means that, between service in Sarajevo and Lebanon, about one-third of the military police force is now serving outside the State.
The soldiers' union, Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA), pointed out on Thursday that if the Defence Forces were to have a NATO commitment, it would almost certainly have to be on a much larger scale than anything previously undertaken by the Army.
All the other PFP countries contribute on a brigade basis to the joint military exercises and operations. This would normally require about 3,000 or 4,000 troops. PDFORRA pointed out that because of the small bridge structure of the Army, the Republic would probably have to provide two battalions to met the participation criteria.
The Army could not meet such criteria at present, but may be able to do so in the next few years after it acquires its APCs. It would then be in a position to make a significant contribution to the NATO peacekeeping mission in former Yugoslavia.
The decision to join PFP and integrate the Defence Forces in a European defence structure has been a directing factor in Army planning for almost a decade. The Army has known that large-scale UN peacekeeping missions are unlikely to occur again. The United States government is unlikely ever again to participate in peacekeeping missions not led by NATO. The experiences of the Americans in Somalia, where US servicemen were killed by Somali militias in 1992, almost certainly ended any military support that the US would lend to the UN. The Defence Forces realised years ago that the gradual run-down of UN operations would eventually affect its operations. The UN operation in Lebanon was being wound down and the Army faced a situation where its main military commitment would disappear. The options were either to have entirely domestically-based Defence Forces acting in support of the Garda Siochana or to find a new foreign role. That role was seen as participation in a significant way in former Yugoslavia. However, until the Army could acquire the troop-carriers their role would have to be limited.
The Defence Forces see membership of PFP as providing an opportunity to train with other armies and to acquire equipment that would give them a role in future major military operations. That would require significant upgrading of equipment, and funds for this are likely to come from savings from the closure of surplus barracks and the reduction in overall military strength.
In the next decade it is likely that the Defence Forces will be transformed into a smaller but more militarily sophisticated organisation which will probably have a niche as a small, front-line infantry group in a NATO-affiliated European defence structure.
