Future of the British Army (Army 2020 Refine)


Army 2020 Refine, formerly known as Future Army Structure or FAS , is the name given to an ongoing restructuring of the British Army, and in particular its fighting brigades.

Background

The British Government gave an indication of its proposals for the future structure of the Army in early 2008, in a press report stating that it was considering restructuring the Army into a force of three deployable divisional headquarters and eight 'homogenous or identical' brigades, each with a spread of heavy, medium and light capabilities. This report indicated that the existing 16 Air Assault Brigade would be retained as a high-readiness rapid reaction force.
Subsequently, it was reported that the former Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, wanted to see the Army structured so as to extend the interval between operational tours from two to two-and-a-half years.
In 2010, the Strategic Defence and Security Review was published. As part of the plans, the British Army will be reduced by 23 regular units, and by 2020 will number 117,000 soldiers, of whom 82,000 would be regulars and 30,000 will be reservists. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 increased the planned number of reservists from 30,000 to 35,000.
On 7 June 2012, the Secretary of State for Defence set out some key considerations for the future of the British Army. Refinements to the plans following the 2015 Review became known as "Army 2020 Refine". Further changes were announced in a written statement in December 2016, and detailed in a Freedom of Information response in March 2017.

Originally envisaged structure

The originally envisaged future structure was announced on 19 July 2011 in a briefing paper entitled Defence Basing Review: Headline Decisions. This structure had five identical multi-role brigades, each of around 6,500 personnel. However, in June 2012 a significantly different structure known as "Army 2020" was announced.
The divisional headquarters of 2nd, 4th and 5th Divisions were disbanded in 2012 and replaced by a single formation known as Support Command, based at Aldershot.
The five multi-role brigades envisaged in 2011 would have comprised:
Combat Support and Logistics would have been retained at divisional level. It was envisaged that 19th Light Brigade then part of 3rd Mechanised Division, would be disbanded.

Army 2020 Refine

According to the British Army, the post-SDSR 2015 Army 2020 plan is called "Army 2020 Refine". The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 announced that the structure of the Reaction and Adaptable Forces would further change, in an evolution of the previous Army 2020 plan. The main changes of Army 2020 Refine are:
The armoured infantry brigades will be reduced from three to two. In a Defence Committee hearing, Chief of the General Staff Sir Nicholas Carter stated that "each of these brigades will have two AJAX regiments and probably two Mechanised Infantry Vehicle battalions as well." There will be around 50 to 60 Ajax vehicles per Strike Brigade.
A December 2016 written statement stated that the first Strike Brigade to form would consist of:
Other units such as 1 Regiment RLC, 1 Close Support Battalion REME, 3 Medical Regiment and 21 Engineer Regiment will provide close support to this Strike Brigade. 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery and 4th Regiment Royal Artillery are assigned to the Strike Brigades.

Specialised Infantry Group

A total of five Specialised Infantry battalions, around 300 personnel strong, are being formed from:
Several units will be closed, with all manpower in those units being redeployed to other areas of the Army in its refined structure. These are:
35 Engineer Regiment was however retained and reformed as an explosive ordnance and search regiment.
32nd Regiment Royal Artillery was also initially planned to be placed under suspended animation. This was reverted in October 2019.
The Scottish and Prince of Wales' Divisions of Infantry will merge, incorporating The Royal Regiment of Scotland, The Royal Welsh Regiment and The Royal Irish Regiment. This administrative division will be called the Scottish, Welsh and Irish Division. The Mercian Regiment from the Prince of Wales’ Division will join with the King's Division.
Foxhound-equipped units will no longer be assigned those vehicles but will only have them available before deployment or operations.

Field Army restructuring 2019

The Field Army was restructured in July/August 2019 as set out below.
At the RUSI Land Warfare Conference in June 2012, the army's Chief of the General Staff General Sir Peter Wall set out a significantly different army structure from that foreseen in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. The new structure was confirmed by the then Secretary of State for Defence, Philip Hammond, on 5 July 2012. The Army Command will comprise the reaction force, the adaptable force, and force troops:

The Reaction Force

The 16 Air Assault Brigade, comprising two battalions of the Parachute Regiment and two Army Air Corps regiments of attack helicopters. This will deliver a very high readiness Lead Air Assault Task Force, with the rest of the brigade ready to move at longer notice.
The 3rd Mechanised Division, renamed the 3rd Division, comprising three armoured infantry brigades: 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade, 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade and 20th Armoured Infantry Brigade. These three brigades will rotate, with one being the lead brigade, a second undergoing training and the third involved in other tasks. The lead brigade will deliver a Lead Battlegroup at very high readiness, with the rest of the brigade at longer notice. Each armoured infantry brigade will be made up of:
The complete air assault brigade and a full mechanised brigade will be available for deployment within three months. All three brigade's HQs are to be based in the Salisbury Plain Training Area.

The Adaptable Force

The 1st Armoured Division, renamed as the 1st Division, along with Support Command. Comprises seven infantry brigades of various sizes, each made up of paired regular and Territorial Army forces, drawn from an Adaptable Force pool of units. These infantry brigades will be suited to domestic operations or overseas commitments or, with sufficient notice, as a brigade level contribution to enduring stabilisation operations. This force pool will comprise:
This will comprise:
The table above provides the general structure of the British Army once Army 2020 is completed. It excludes regiments like the Corps of Music or units under other commands such as the air defence regiments.
There are three Foot Guards incremental companies stationed in London, and one Line Infantry incremental company stationed in Edinburgh.

Royal Armoured Corps

Four of the Royal Armoured Corps' Regiments will merge into two regiments:
will disband, with its Multiple Launch Rocket Systems being transferred to the rest of the Royal Artillery and Territorial Army.
In accordance with the Strategic Defence and Security Review, the number of AS-90 self-propelled guns will be reduced by 35%. The number of active Challenger 2 tanks was cut by around forty per cent, and by 2014 had been reduced to 227.
12th and 16th Royal Artillery will continue to be placed under a joint Army-RAF unit, Joint Ground-Based Air Defence Command.

Infantry

Four of the British Army's 36 regular infantry battalions will be disbanded or merged with sister units in their regiments:
A fifth battalion, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland, will be reduced to a single company to carry out public duties in Scotland.
However, through the 2020 reforms, 3 new battalions of infantry have been created including:
The Joint Helicopter Command will remain an integral part of the land force. The Army Air Corps will be reduced by one regular regiment. 1 and 9 Regt AAC will merge with the new Wildcat helicopter not before Oct 2015. One Regiment will be at high readiness annually, with one Apache Squadron committed towards the Lead Armoured Battlegroup. 653 AAC will be an Operational Training Squadron from 2015, leaving the Apache Regiments with four active squadrons altogether. The government pledged to upgrade 50 AgustaWestland Apache to AH-64E standard, however, an 11 May 2017 US government contract list states that only 38 will be re-manufactured.

Army Reserve

The Territorial Army will be renamed the Army Reserve, and will be expanded from 19,000 to 30,000 personnel. Its military equipment will be upgraded to meet the standards of the regular army and its units will be realigned. The 2015 review increased the intended strength of the Reserves to 35,000.

Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

The regular component of the REME structure will reduce by one battalion to seven regular battalions. 101 Force Support Battalion will be disbanded not before autumn 2015.

Royal Military Police

As part of the drawdown from Germany, the Royal Military Police will lose one regiment, 4 Regiment RMP. The three remaining regiments will be re-organised.

Other

British Forces Royal Logistic Corps in Germany will be withdrawn back to the UK by 2015:
Note: There is no mention of where 12 Close Logistics Regiment will be in the Army 2020 documents. Newspapers say it will be disbanded.

Formation structure of original Army 2020 structure

Regular units only, table does not include Force Troops Command Units or Logistics Brigades
BrigadeArmoured CavalryArmouredArmoured InfantryHeavy Protected Mobility
1st Armoured Infantry BrigadeHousehold Cavalry RegimentRoyal Tank RegimentRoyal Regiment of Fusiliers
Mercian Regiment		4 The Rifles
12th Armoured Infantry BrigadeRoyal LancersKing's Royal HussarsThe Yorkshire Regiment
Royal Welsh		Scots Guards
20th Armoured Infantry BrigadeRoyal Dragoon GuardsQueen's Royal Hussars5 The Rifles
Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment		Highlanders

BrigadeLight CavalryLight Protected Mobility InfantryLight Role Infantry
4th Infantry BrigadeLight Dragoons2 Yorkshire Regiment
7th Infantry BrigadeQueen's Dragoon Guards2 Royal Anglian Regiment
1 Royal Irish Regiment 		1 Royal Anglian Regiment
11th Infantry BrigadeWelsh GuardsGrenadier Guards
1 Royal Gurkha Rifles
38th Irish Infantry BrigadeRoyal Scots Borderers
2 The Rifles
42nd Infantry Brigade2 Mercian Regiment
2 Duke of Lancaster's Regiment
51st Infantry BrigadeRoyal Scots Dragoon Guards3 The Rifles
3 Royal Regiment of Scotland		2 Royal Regiment of Scotland
160th Infantry Brigade1 The Rifles

InfantryAir CorpsSupport troops
2 Royal Gurkha Rifles
2 Parachute Regiment
3 PARA		3 AAC
4 AAC		7 RHA
23 Engineer Regiment
216 Signal Squadron
13 Air Assault Support Regiment
16 Close Support Medical Regiment
7 Air Assault Battalion REME.

FormationCeremonialLight Role
British Forces Cyprus1 Duke of Lancaster's Regiment
2 PWRR
British Forces Brunei2 Royal Gurkha Rifles
London DistrictHousehold Cavalry Mounted RegimentColdstream Guards
Irish Guards
The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery

Basing

An initial basing plan located infantry brigades throughout the United Kingdom, with the three reaction force brigades situated in the Salisbury Plain Training Area. On 5 March 2013, a future basing plan of units in the UK was released. As noted above, all Germany-based units will be relocated to the UK, with the Salisbury Plain area holding the largest concentration of troops.