Chief challenges 'industrial age' Army to modernise in information era

The head of the British Army says it is an "industrial age organisation" which needs to move forward in an information age.

Chief of the General Staff (CGS) General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith told the Army People Conference in Farnborough that change will happen.

He challenged those attending to ask themselves which side of progress they wanted to be on.

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The Army has experienced a bruising few months – including a highly critical report into Women in the Armed Forces released by the Commons Defence Committee in the summer, and the re-opening of an investigation into the death of Agnes Wanjiru, whose body was found in a septic tank of a hotel in Kenya after being last seen on a night out with British soldiers in 2012. 

The CGS was clear and direct in his message: "Any institution that wants to flourish, has to get two things right. It has to get its people right, and it has to get its culture right.

"Let me be clear. We are going to change the Army."