Units of the British Army


The units of the British Army are commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. This is broadly similar to the structures of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, in that the four-star commanders-in-chief have been eliminated since 2011 and service chiefs are given direct command of their respective services and are responsible as Top Level Budget holders. Army Headquarters is located in Andover, Hampshire. There is a Commander Field Army and a personnel and UK operations command, Home Command.
The command structure is hierarchical with divisions and brigades controlling groupings of units from an administrative perspective. Major Units are regiment or battalion-sized with minor units being either company sized sub-units or platoons. All units within the service are either Regular or Army Reserve, or a combination with sub-units of each type.
Naming conventions of units differ for traditional British historical reasons, creating a significant opportunity for confusion; an infantry battalion is equivalent to a cavalry regiment. An infantry regiment is an administrative and ceremonial organisation only, and may include several battalions. For operational tasks, a battle group will be formed around a combat unit, supported by units or sub-units from other areas. 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.
Since the 1957 Defence Review, the size of the Army has consistently shrunk. A comparison of the List of British Army Regiments, the List of British Army Regiments and the List of British Army Regiments will show the steep decline in the number of infantry and armoured regiments. Since 1990, reductions have been almost constant, through succeeding defence reviews: Options for Change, Front Line First, the Strategic Defence Review of 1998, Delivering Security in a Changing World, and the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010. However, the 2015 Review indicated no change from the personnel number targets set in 2010.

Army Headquarters

Through a major army reorganisation effective 1 November 2011, the Chief of the General Staff took direct command of the Army through a new structure, based at Andover and known as "Army Headquarters".
Reporting to the Chief of the General Staff are four lieutenant-generals: the Deputy Chief of the General Staff; the Commander Field Army ; the Commander Home Command, and Commander Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. The CFA is responsible for generating and preparing forces for current and contingency operations; he commands 1st Division, 3rd Division, 6th Division and Joint Helicopter Command.
CHC is responsible for commanding a wide variety of organisations that both contribute to the administrative running of the Army, and focuses on the 'home base'.

Formations

Commands

A command is a military formation that handles a specific task or region, and can direct forces as large as multiple corps or as little as a few battalions. Previously the Army had regional commands in the UK, including Aldershot Command, Eastern Command, Northern Command, Scottish Command, Southern Command and Western Command. In addition, there were functional commands, such as Anti-Aircraft Command, and overseas commands, such as Middle East Command. Gradually, these were consolidated into a land command in the UK, Headquarters UK Land Forces, and a land command in Germany, British Army of the Rhine. Eventually, both were merged into Land Command and later, Field Army.
From 1995, UK commands and later districts were replaced by regenerative divisions. 2nd Division, 4th Division, 5th Division and London District acted as regional commands within the UK reporting to Commander Regional Forces. Scotland District was absorbed by 2nd Division in 2000. The divisions were responsible for training subordinate formations and units under their command for operations in the UK, such as Military Aid to the Civil Community, as well as training units for overseas deployments. 2nd, 4th and 5th Divisions were replaced by Support Command on 1 November 2011. Support command was later re-titled as Regional Command in 2015.
London District includes many units with significant ceremonial roles. The Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle is primarily mounted by the two Foot Guards Battalions and one Line Infantry Battalion, together with the Foot Guards Incremental companies: Nijmegen Company, Grenadier Guards, No 7 Company, Coldstream Guards, and F Company, Scots Guards. The guard at Horse Guards is normally drawn from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment. The Honourable Artillery Company carries out public duties in the City of London. The HAC and the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery provide gun salutes in London. Under the General Officer Commanding Scotland, public duties in Edinburgh are the responsibility of a new incremental company, Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, formed after the reduction of the Argylls from battalion status.

Corps

A corps, in the sense of a field fighting formation, is a formation of two or more divisions, potentially 50,000 personnel or more. While the British Army has no standing corps headquarters, forces are allocated through a number of multinational arrangements to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and European commitments, providing much of the headquarters capability and framework for the multinational Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. The last purely British corps, I Corps, disbanded in Germany after the end of the Cold War.
The word corps is also used for administrative groupings by common function, such as the Royal Armoured Corps and Army Air Corps. Various Combat Support Arms and Services are referred to in the wider sense as a Corps, such as the Royal Corps of Signals.

Divisions

A division is a formation of three or four brigades, around twenty thousand personnel, commanded by a Major General.
The British Army has two deployable divisions, capable of deploying the headquarters and subordinate formations immediately to operations. A third division has responsibility for overseeing both offensive and defensive cyberwarfare, intelligence activities, surveillance and propaganda.
London District is responsible for the maintenance of capability for the defence of the capital and the provision of ceremonial units and garrisons for the Crown Estate in London, such as the Tower of London.
Several infantry regiments are organised into four administrative divisions based on the type of infantry unit or traditional recruiting areas:
A brigade contains three or four battalion-sized units, around 5,000 personnel, and is commanded by a one star officer, a Brigadier. The brigade will contain a wide range of military disciplines allowing the conduct of a spectrum of military tasks.
The brigade would be required to deploy up to three separate battlegroups, the primary tactical formation employed in British doctrine. The battlegroup is a mixed formation built around the core of one unit, an armoured regiment or infantry battalion, with sub-units providing artillery, engineers, logistics, aviation, etc., as required.
Combat formations include:
An additional formation, 3rd Commando Brigade, is formed primarily of units of the Royal Marines, a commando trained force that is part of the Naval Service, but has a number of British Army units under its command.
There are also several combat support and combat service support units of brigade size.
In addition to the brigades above, there are a number of other units of brigade-size, some which are under joint command.
The British Army parades according to the order of precedence, from right to left, with the unit at the extreme right being highest on the order. The Household Cavalry has the highest precedence, unless the Royal Horse Artillery parades with its guns.

Arms and services

Combat Arms

The Combat Arms are the "teeth" of the British Army, infantry, armoured and aviation units which engage in close action.

Household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps

Regiments of line cavalry and the Royal Tank Regiment together form the Royal Armoured Corps which has units equipped with either main battle tanks, light armour for reconnaissance, or lightly armoured vehicles for the light cavalry role. An additional reconnaissance regiment is provided by the Household Cavalry Regiment, of the Household Cavalry, which administratively is not considered to be part of the RAC, but is included among the RAC order of battle for operational tasking.
Armoured RegimentsArmoured Cavalry RegimentsLight Cavalry Regiments
The King's Royal HussarsHousehold Cavalry Regiment1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards
The Queen's Royal Hussars
The Royal Dragoon GuardsThe Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
The Royal Tank RegimentThe Royal Lancers
The Light Dragoons

Infantry

The Infantry is divided for administrative purposes into four 'divisions', with battalions being trained and equipped to operate in one of six main roles:
Under the arms-plot system, a battalion would spend between two and six years in one role, before re-training for another. Following a review of the operation of the army, it has been demonstrated that this system is inefficient and it is being phased out, with battalions specialising in role—this will see armoured infantry, mechanised infantry and air assault battalions remaining in a single posting; however, light infantry battalions will continue to be periodically rotated between postings. Personnel will be "trickle posted" between battalions of the same regiment as required, and to further their careers.
Guards DivisionScottish, Welsh and Irish DivisionKing's DivisionQueen's Division
1st Bn, Grenadier Guards1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Bn,
The Royal Regiment of Scotland		1st & 2nd Bn, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment
1st & 2nd Bn, The Princess of Wales's
Royal Regiment
1st Bn, Coldstream Guards1st Bn, The Royal Welsh1st & 2nd Bn The Yorkshire Regiment 1st Bn, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
1st Bn, Scots Guards1st Bn, The Royal Irish Regiment
1st & 2nd Bn, The Mercian Regiment 1st & 2nd Bn, The Royal Anglian Regiment
1st Bn, Irish GuardsThe Royal Gibraltar Regiment
1st Bn, Welsh Guards

Three further infantry units in the regular army are not grouped within the various infantry divisions:
The role of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment is limited to the defence of Gibraltar.
The three senior regiments of foot guards, plus the Royal Regiment of Scotland, each maintain an additional reinforced company that retains custody of the colours of battalions that are in suspended animation:
The Royal Gurkha Rifles maintains three additional company sized units that are permanently attached to various training establishments to serve in the OPFOR role in providing realistic battle training:
The Royal Gurkha Rifles is the largest element of the Brigade of Gurkhas, which includes its own support arms. These units are affiliated to the equivalent British units, but have their own unique cap badges.
Note: UKSF is considered a joint organisation and as such falls outside the Army chain of command.

Combat Support Arms

The Combat Support Arms provide direct support to the Combat Arms and include artillery, engineer, signals and aviation.

Royal Regiment of Artillery

The Royal Artillery consists of 13 Regular Regiments and 5 Reserve Regiments along with the ceremonial King's Troop. Although not part of the Royal Regiment of Artillery the Honourable Artillery Company shares some of the same capabilities. Four of the Regular Regiments retain the cap badge, or "cypher", and traditions of the Royal Horse Artillery, although this naming convention has no link to the role that they undertake. The Royal Artillery undertakes six different roles:
Home Defence
Air DefenceClose Support
Close Support
Surveillance and Target Acquisition Unmanned Aerial Systems Training
King's Troop, RHA12 Regiment RA1st Regiment RHA7th Regiment RHA5 Regiment RA32 Regiment RA14 Regiment RA
16 Regiment RA19 Regiment RA29 Regiment RAHonourable Artillery Company 47 Regiment RA
26 Regiment RA3rd Regiment RHA
4 Regiment RA

Corps of Royal Engineers

The Royal Engineers is a corps of 15 regiments in the regular army providing military engineering capabilities to the field army and facilities management expertise within garrisons.
Regiments are associated with Brigade level formations with a number of independent squadrons and support groups associated with specific tasks:
The Royal School of Military Engineering comprises two recruit training regiments:
The remainder are field regiments attached to various deployable formations:
The Royal Signals is a corps of 10 Regiments and 13 independent squadrons which provides communications and information systems support to formations of Brigade level and above. Below the Brigade level support is provided by Battalion Signallers drawn from the parent unit. Within the deployable brigades, the Signal Regiment also provides support to the HQ function including logistics, life support and force protection capabilities.
The Army Air Corps provides battlefield air support with six regiments and four independent squadrons and flights:
The Intelligence Corps provides intelligence support including collection, interpretation and counter-intelligence capabilities with three battalions and a joint service group:
The Combat Service Support Arms provide sustainment and support for the Combat and Combat Support Arms. Whilst CSS personnel are not intended to close with and engage opposition forces, the fluidity of the modern battlefield means that these personnel are likely to be engaged in close combat at times, particularly when associated with Battle Groups.

Royal Logistic Corps

The Royal Logistic Corps is the largest single corps in the British Army:
The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers is a corps that provides maintenance support to equipment and vehicles. Most units will have either a Light Aid Detachment or Workshop attached. Seven battalions provide support to formations of brigade level and above:
The Army Medical Services provide primary and secondary care for the armed forces in fixed locations and whilst deployed on operations. Personnel are attached to a parent unit, one of five field regiments or the defence medical services. The AMS comprises four different Corps providing the range of medical and veterinary care, with the Royal Army Medical Corps also providing the administrative framework for the regiments.
The Adjutant General's Corps provides administrative, police and disciplinary and educational support to the army. The AGC is an amalgamation with three of the constituent units retaining their previous cap badge. Personnel from the AGC administrative and educational specialisations serve in attached posts to establishments or units of other arms. The police and disciplinary activities retain their own cap badges and act as discrete bodies. The Corps as a whole is divided into four separate branches:
Training in the Regular Army differs for soldiers and officers but in general takes place in at least two phases:
Phase one training is basic military training for all new recruits. Here candidates learn the basic standards of military performance including operation in the field, weapon handling, personal administration, drill etc.
Phase two training is specific to the trade that the soldier or officer will follow and is conducted in a branch specialised school. Phase two training enables the individual to join an operational unit prepared to contribute to operational effectiveness. These schools are under the direction of the parent corps or arm of the service, as illustrated above, with the Infantry Training Centre being formed of two training battalions.

Units of the Army Reserve

Combat Arms

Armour

The four armoured regiments of the Army Reserve operate in two roles - provision of crew replacements for armoured regiments, and Light Cavalry :

Honourable Artillery Company

Note: The Honourable Artillery Company is a corps in its own right and is not part of the Royal Artillery.

Royal Engineers

Note: Although the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers is part of the Royal Engineers order of battle, it is a separate regiment with its own cap badge, regimental colours and traditions.

Royal Signals

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers