British Army - Order of Battle

Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army (CFA), described plans for rebalancing his command which will see changes to the structure of the Field Army’s primary formations. Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army said 31 July 2019: "The character of warfare continues to change as the boundaries between conventional and unconventional warfare become increasingly blurred. The Army must remain adaptable and evolve as a fighting force. The three complementary British Army Divisions harness the wide range of British Army capabilities, providing choice to the Government in defence of the UK’s interests.

While retaining its operational focus, the intention is to rebalance the Army’s formations in order to meet the challenges of constant competition and maintain its high-end warfighting capability. Lt Gen Jones added: "The Field Army must build on the strong foundation of the 3rd Division’s world class warfighting force. 1st Division provides specialist soldiers and equipment to develop other nations’ armies, deal with disaster and humanitarian crises worldwide and enable our warfighting division. 6th Division focuses on Cyber, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence, Information Operations and unconventional warfare through niche capabilities such as the Specialised Infantry Battalions."

The speed of change is moving at a remarkable rate and it will only get faster and more complex. This change will be integrated within broader Defence, national and alliance efforts and enable the Field Army to operate and fight more effectively above and below the threshold of conflict. The Field Army rebalancing is part of the Army’s response to the emerging Defence thinking and will create a Field Army of integrated, interdependent and complementary formations from 1 Aug 2019.

• 1st (United Kingdom) Division (1 (UK) Div) with its blend of lighter infantry, logistics, engineers and medics will provide more strategic choice and a range of capabilities, conducting capacity building, stabilisation operations, disaster relief and UK resilience operations. It will include: 4th (Infantry) Brigade, 7th (Infantry) Brigade, 11th (Infantry) Brigade, 51st (Infantry) Brigade, 8th Engineer Brigade, 102nd Logistic Brigade, 104th Logistic Brigade, 2nd Medical Brigade
• 3rd (United Kingdom) Division (3 (UK) Div) will remain as the Army’s primary armoured warfighting force comprising: 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade, 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade, 20th Armoured Infantry Brigade, 1st Artillery Brigade, 101st Logistic Brigade, 25th Engineer Group, 7th Air Defence Group
• 6th (United Kingdom) Division. The re-designation of Force Troops Command (FTC) to 6th (United Kingdom) Division (6 (UK) Div) will provide the Army’s asymmetric edge , orchestrating Intelligence, Counter-Intelligence, Information Operations, Electronic Warfare, Cyber and unconventional warfare. 6 (UK) Div will include: 1st Signal Brigade, 11th Signal Brigade, 1st Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade, 77th Brigade and the Specialist Infantry Group

There will be no changes to personnel numbers, resourcing, cap badges or locations.

Regimental System

British Army - History

1999 - Order of Battle

2014 - Order of Battle

2015 - Strategic Review

Battalions - 1991

Battalions - 1991 to 1993

Brigades

Corps:

• Infantry
• Royal Armoured Corps
• Army Air Corps
• Royal Artillery Regiment
• Royal Corps of Signals
• Corps of Royal Engineers
• Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
• Royal Logistics Corps
• Intelligence Corps
• Royal Army Chaplains' Department
• Adjutant General's Corps

• Army Medical Services
• Royal Army Medical Corps
• Royal Army Veterinary Corps
• Royal Army Dental Corps
• Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
• UK Special Forces
• Corps of Army Music
• Royal Army Physical Training Corps
• Small Arms School Corps
• Brigade of Gurkhas
• Media Operations Group (Volunteers)

Organization

The organisations within the British Army are divided into three types:

Combat units:
These units spearhead the Army’s military capability. They include the Infantry, the Royal Armoured Corps and the Army Air Corps.

Combat Support units:
These units provide support to the combat units in the combat zone. They include the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers, the Royal
Signals and the Intelligence Corps.

Combat Service Support units:
These units provide essential support services both in combat and in peacetime. They include the Adjutant-General’s Corps, the Army Medical Services, the Royal Logistics Corps and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

The last date on which the Army did not contain either a Guard's Brigade or Division as an operational unit was in 1920. The Brigade of Guards was reformed on 14 July 1948 as the administrative depot for the regiments of foot guards. It was renamed the Guards Division on 01 July 1968. When The Sunday Times was discussing the mechanics of "The Fall of Edward Heath", Mr. Harold Macmillan was supposed to have said it was very unwise of any Government to take on the Vatican, the National Union of Mineworkers or the Brigade of Guards.

Uniquely and rather confusingly, the Infantry, which is a collection of regiments, was organized in 1957 into Brigades, which were not fighting formations but rather provided depots for training recruits to the three or four regiments within the Brigade. From 1968 through 2010, the Infantry was administered by 'Divisions' of infantry – Guards Division, Scottish Division, King's Division, Queen's Division and Prince of Wales' Divisions [four regiments were not under these Divisions]. Again, these Divisions were not fighting formations, but like the earlier Brigades, provided depots for centralised training of recruits to the units within the Division.

Formations and Units

In the British Army, divisions and brigades are referred to as "formations." Brigades consist of several "units," which are regiment- or battalion-sized, and which consist of a number of sub-units. Sub-units are generally about 100 personnel strong. In the British Army division-level formations are administrative or deployable formations. Similarly, the term Corps can be applied toa maneuver headquarters that controls multiple divisions (no such entity was active as of 2012) or a administrative headquarters for units in afunctional area, broadly similar to the US Army's Branches. Regimental headquarters are administrative and ceremonial in nature. All units within the service are either Regular (full-time) or Territorial Army (part-time), or a combination with sub-units of each type.

For operational tasks a battle group would be formed around a combat unit, supported by units or sub-units from other areas. Such an example would be a squadron of tanks attached to an armoured infantry battle group, together with a reconnaissance troop, artillery battery, and engineering support.