Why defence will remain a frontline battleground long after Scottish independence

A week ago, on December 22, a symbol of nearly four centuries of Scotland’s military history vanished from our view when soldiers of the Royal Scots and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers paraded in Belfast and for the last time doffed their traditional Tam o’ shanters with black hackles.

Instead they put on fresh headgear somewhat more sober in style. In future they will always wear these grey berets of the British Army’s new Ranger Regiment, each one adorned with a badge showing the peregrine falcon, an icon of speed, agility and fierce loyalty.

For the future, these features will mark the latest major military re-organisation by the UK. Huge changes have already taken place since the turn of the 21st century. Armies no longer mount offensives on open battlefields but instead master the detail of countering rogue states and violent extremism.

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Those two Scottish units happen to be stationed in Northern Ireland just now, so that was where the ceremonial took place. Their next tour of duty could be to anywhere in the world and involve partnership with similar outfits from our allies, fighting together not to conquer territory but to get used to the drills we will use to defend our common values.

The parade in Belfast, officially by the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland (in short 1 Scots), is the first in a series of moves being directed by UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, himself a former Scots Guard. Some will test local loyalties – the oldest Highland regiment, now to be the Black Watch battalion, will lose more than half its troops. The loyalties can be long-standing too. The Royal Scots dated back to 1643 and the Borderers, founded in 1689, are just a little younger.

But military history only follows lines laid down by political or technological history. Wallace says cuts across the Army’s infantry are needed to free up the money to meet, for example, new cyber threats from drones.

At the same time, there will be “an increased proportion of the army based in each of the devolved nations”. Glencorse Barracks outside Edinburgh will be retained, while Kinloss in Moray and Leuchars in Fife will be expanded. Defence can be a profitable business – £355 million of military investment will “deliver more than £1 billion of economic benefits to Scotland”.

On being formed in 2006 out of the historic infantry units, 1 Scots had five battalions, each with more than 500 soldiers. After a succession of reviews, it will be left with two full-strength infantry battalions and a ceremonial company of 150 troops based in Edinburgh. The remainder of the Black Watch, with more than 200 men, will take on a completely new role in training foreign armies.

The cuts must therefore also mean a reduction in the annual intake of recruits into Scotland’s infantry, though it will only formalise what was already happening to the five regiments by the end of the 20th century. This time, the officer corps of the Royal Regiment has not been able to fend off moves for the reduction of its battalions, and maybe there has been a slackening in the spirit to do so.

In the past, the regiments found no trouble recruiting enough Scotsmen to fill their ranks, and there were battle-hardened families that sent sons to join up for generation after generation. In time, a military career has evidently seemed less attractive on home soil, and recruits can now come from other parts of the UK or from countries of the Commonwealth.

Dr Alex Marshall, of the Scottish Centre for War Studies at Glasgow University, comments: “The Army struggles to retain the required number of soldiers, and recruits from overseas fill that gap as they often have a greater economic incentive to join up and remain in the forces. A lot of the soldiers are keen to embrace Scotland’s proud military tradition.”

RECORD numbers of foreigners from countries around the world, including Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand and Uganda, have joined Scotland’s frontline troops. According to Dr Marshall: “There are also issues of the fitness of recruits and retention of soldiers at a time when the tempo of operations is high. Some recruits from the west coast of Scotland may not meet the fitness criteria while many Fijian soldiers would pass with flying colours.”

In the past, none of this would have been as easy as it seems likely to turn out now. There was, in parts of Scotland, a strong identification, sometimes going back centuries, between the locally recruited unit and the area it took its name from. In times of military cutbacks, Scots MPs were expected to save the regiment that was the pride of their county.

The politics of defence has changed in the devolved UK. The Tories were always by nature a pro-military party. MPs such as former secretary of state for Scotland, George Younger, and “Mad Mitch” – Colonel Colin Mitchell of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders – made defence of the regiments a prime part of their political activity.

The SNP are bidding to take over this role, and use it against the party that in parts of the country is still the main opposition. “The Tories think nothing of discarding Scotland’s rich military heritage and the links between our historic regiments and the communities from which they recruit,” a spokesman said.

That glosses over the fact that in its early days the SNP contained a pacifist element and had members who were conscientious objectors during the Second World War.

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The tendency continued afterwards in opposition to future membership of Nato. But in 2012 the party conference reversed this stance, subject to agreement that Scotland would not host nuclear weapons. In practice, this would mean the end of the UK’s nuclear naval base at Faslane.

Instead, in the independent Scotland, Faslane is to become the joint forces headquarters. The Scottish armed forces will comprise 15,000 regular and 5000 reserve troops. All current bases will be retained to house the units, which will be organised into one regular and one reserve multi-role brigade. The Air Force will operate from Lossiemouth and Leuchars.

But, as we know from experience while still in the UK, defence is not something that can be organised on the cheap. After independence, there is bound to be fierce argument over how much defence Scotland really needs and wants to pay for.

In favour of strong commitment is the fact part of our coastline looks out on a large area of the North Atlantic Ocean, which we could help to patrol with our friends in Denmark and Norway. On the other hand this would need heavy expenditure that might not be readily available in the early days of the new nation. Not all problems will be automatically solved by independence.