Rebuilding Momentum: Change starts today

As you will know, over the last few weeks we have been working through the next stage of Rebuilding Momentum. Today we are moving from that discussion into action.

---

Where we are

In August we published Rebuilding Momentum, setting out the need for a simpler, faster and more active UNITAF. On 1 September we held an All Hands open to the whole Unit, where members challenged that direction, raised concerns and added ideas of their own.

At the same time, we opened the CO and XO roles and received 18 applications across the two posts. The amount of thought and effort people put into those applications was significant. Over the last week we have brought those applicants together, continued the discussion openly and worked through what the next UNITAF should look like in practice.

That process has been encouraging. We have not agreed on everything, and we should not need to. What matters is that people care enough to put ideas forward, challenge them properly, improve them and then make something happen. We want much more of that.

Thank you, Korean

Before appointing the next Unit Command team, we want to properly thank Maj Korean Falcon for his two years as Commanding Officer. He has given UNITAF a huge amount of his time and carried the responsibility that comes with the role through easier and harder periods.

He is stepping down as CO, not stepping away from UNITAF. He has already made clear that he wants to continue contributing wherever he can, and we are very glad he will remain part of what comes next. Today we appoint only the third Commanding Officer in UNITAF's history.

What we need from Unit Command

The qualities we need from Unit Command come directly from Rebuilding Momentum. We need people who will trust the people doing the work, push authority down, remove unnecessary friction and keep the Unit moving.

Activity and presence have also weighed heavily in these decisions. Leadership needs to be something members actually experience, not something that exists mainly in a structure or on Discord. We need people who are around, who play alongside members, who lead in the field, who are approachable, and who understand the mood of the Unit because they are part of it.

At the end of all of this, UNITAF exists so that we can get together and play good, structured missions with people we enjoy spending time with. Everything else is there to support that. Unit Command needs to stay close to that reality.

For this next period, the CO, XO and a Senior Enlisted Leader will together form Unit Command (UC). The Senior Enlisted Leader will be the senior enlisted member of Unit Command, bringing a visible member-facing and NCO perspective into the leadership team.

I have deliberately not appointed people who agree on every detail. Across the application process there has been a real range of views about how far and how quickly we should change. These appointments are not an endorsement of any one application or proposal. They are a judgement that UNITAF needs a balance of those ideas, and that the leadership team, like the Unit, will need to challenge each other, find common ground and pull in the same direction.

Executive Officer

Stormaple

Stormaple brings substantial current activity, a measured approach to change and one of the strongest focuses in the applications on community, belonging and the member experience. As XO, that makes him well placed to keep the reset grounded in the day-to-day experience of members and to provide balance as we move quickly through change.

Commanding Officer

SkullCollector

Skull has put more sustained thought than anyone into how Rebuilding Momentum should actually work in practice. He has consistently challenged inherited assumptions and, in my view, has the strongest grasp of the reset itself and what it will take to turn the strategy into a working model.

Senior Enlisted Leader

Kevin

Kevin has been one of UNITAF's most consistently active members for a very long time and remains one of the people members most regularly encounter leading on operations today. Combined with his experience as a former Executive Officer and J7 NCOIC, he brings both a deep understanding of where we have come from and the visible, day-to-day leadership we want Unit Command to have.

Taken together, I believe this gives us the right mix for the next stage.

How we will carry out the reset

We will establish a Reset Task Group (RTG) immediately. Unit Command and I will all be part of it, and it will have the full backing of the Unit. Its purpose is to bring the right people together around the work.

The 18 people who applied across the CO and XO roles have already put a huge amount of thought and energy into this process, and that enthusiasm should not end because today's appointments have been made. The same is true of our current staff, members and contributors. We need to harness that experience and energy across the Unit, not narrow the reset down to a handful of names.

The RTG is temporary. Its job is to complete the reset, hand ongoing responsibilities to the people who will own them, and then close. People will be able to express interest in the areas where they want to help, whether or not they hold a particular rank or staff position.

Some of the first areas we expect to work through are:

• Operations: an intense focus on what happens on the ground, particularly our Sunday operations. Our chief operational goal is to get back to regular, large-scale combined arms operations that people actively want to turn up for, while building the mission-making, field leadership and supporting capability needed to sustain them.
• Recruitment and intakes: making it easier and faster for new applicants to get through the door and feel part of UNITAF.
• Training, FTS and slot access: working with Training Teams on simpler and potentially quite radical ways for members to access roles while still protecting standards.
• Troops and belonging: seriously considering a return of Troops as a smaller social home for members, without rebuilding the old personnel bureaucracy around them.
• Policy, permissions and systems: removing unnecessary rules and dependencies, and giving people responsible for an area the tools and access to actually run it.
• Redefining the roadmap: while it has a part to play, we will significantly reduce reliance on the roadmap for most decisions and prefer more human interaction and direct action.

We will take proper care where changes affect people, standards or critical systems, but we will move through the reset as quickly as we sensibly can.

Our purpose comes first

I have spent a lot of words talking about structure, leadership, Teams, rules and systems. Most members should not need to care very much about any of that.

For most of us, the real test is much simpler: was Sunday good? Was there a mission worth turning up for? Could you get into it? Did the people around you know what they were doing? Did you enjoy the night, and do you want to come back next week?

That is what the reset needs to serve. In practical terms, UNITAF needs:

• good missions happening regularly, with a renewed focus on making large-scale combined arms Sunday operations a core part of what we do;
• people able to join, learn, access roles and play well together;
• members who are known, looked after and want to remain part of the community;
• people doing the work having systems, guidance and tools that help them do it; and
• a Unit that notices when something stops working and changes it.

Our principles tell us how we should achieve those things: keep doors open, put authority with responsibility, back sensible action, coordinate rather than escalate, make rules earn their place, communicate openly, use realism where it improves gameplay and act with integrity.

In the coming weeks we will finalise and ratify the Charter. It will give us the common licence and boundaries to work from, preserving the standards and identity that make UNITAF recognisably UNITAF while allowing almost everything underneath it to change when it needs to.

For now, existing appointments, Teams, responsibilities and rules remain in place until they are deliberately changed. At the same time, you should expect change, encourage it where it makes UNITAF better, and get involved where you want to help.

What happens next

Over the next few weeks you should expect to see Unit Command active and visible, the RTG opened to wider involvement, the Charter finalised and ratified, and the first practical changes starting to land. One of Unit Command's early responsibilities will also be to put clear ownership around Community, as committed to in Rebuilding Momentum.

Unit Command will provide regular and ongoing updates on what is happening, what has changed, what is being tested and what comes next. Those updates should also make it clear where help is needed and how members can get involved, so nobody should need to guess where the reset has got to or how they can contribute.

A message to you

Whether you joined last week, have been here for seven years, turn up casually when you can, or spend hours every week helping to run things, this reset is about making UNITAF more worth your time.

We want to get back to the things that make this place special: turning up on a Sunday knowing there will be a good mission, playing alongside people you know, having a laugh before and afterwards, learning something, doing something well together, and feeling part of a Unit with its own identity and standards.

The Charter, the RTG, the organisation chart and the officer appointments only matter if they help us do that. We do not want to spend our time talking about how we are organised. We want to finish this work and put our attention back where it belongs.

We also have a huge opportunity ahead of us. Arma Reforger is already giving us new possibilities, and Arma 4 in 2027 could be one of the biggest moments in our history. We need to use the rest of 2026 to complete this reset properly and be ready to make the most of that opportunity when it arrives.

We all have a part to play. Some people will take on major pieces of the reset. Others will make missions, teach, help a new member, improve a guide, join a Team, reconnect with someone who has drifted away, or simply turn up on Sunday and help make it a good night.

I will play my part too. I will continue as Chairman, supporting Unit Command, holding them to the direction we have set, working with the RTG and continuing the J10 refactor so the people doing the work have the tools they need.

We have seven and a half years behind us, a huge amount worth protecting, and every reason to believe that what lies ahead can be greater than anything we have achieved so far.

Let's get to it.