‘The Gunners’ is a colloquialism for The Royal Regiment of Artillery. At over 300 years of age, She is an institutional adolescent, and as befits Her maturation, is suffering an identity crisis.
I hope no reader will suppose that ‘mere’ Gunnery is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing sacraments – as if a man could adopt it in preference to Air Defence or Targeting or anything else. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure St Barbara keeps no one waiting unless She sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for Illumination: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling. In plain language, the question should never be: ‘Do I like that kind of equipment?’ but ‘Are the doctrines true: Is Armed Science here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?’
When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.”1
The Royal Artillery is a confusing Arm.
We seem to have the new stuff quite often, presumably because it 'looks' like it sits at higher echelons – and those Gunners feel like the right people for that sort of thing. We appear to take on new equipments until the right home can be found for them, or their 'home' changes.
A lot of the time we seem to be figuring out if the technology should be handled by us exclusively, and concentrated in action (as guns still should be), or if it should be administered and organised by us, but 'parceled out' to whoever gives the best justification (probably true of Unmanned Air Systems or Air Defence).
Then, over time, it devolves.
We used to have direct fire cannon. Other Arms specialise in that now.
We used to have mortars. Another Arm does that now, and as a complement to the other things they are doing.
We used to have planes. Another Service does that now.
Machine Guns splashed around in an adjacent position, used to be a separate Arm, but now are pervasively employed by the Infantry.
Our relationship with Anti-Tank (and Air Defence) is complicated. Anti-Tank is devolved to Infantry organisations too, or at least for now at those types or scales.
We used to have a variety of 'golf clubs' but the Infanteers seem to be swinging lots of them now, and may, perhaps rightly, have more from us yet.
And what of the future? It seems wrong to hoard UAS at all scales. But the Counter-UAS feels like it sits with us more than anyone else for now, even if it barely exists and would be penny-packeted in its deployment.
What is the answer to this youthful confusion?
Sound foundations.
We started as a house of one room. We are now a house of many rooms, and we will continue to be so. We were once detached and alone, but now have a semi-detached existence, with many neighbours overlooking our garden. On occasion, some other houses will knock some walls through and commandeer one of our rooms, as they did with that downstairs flat. We will eventually have extensions built in all sorts of directions, but not before we finish that loft conversion. In the meantime, feel comfortable in the hall, but don’t dawdle. Find a room, know that it is borrowed, but make it your own. For the good of The Whole House.
This is Mere Gunnery.
CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. XV. With apologies to apologists.