The Royal Armoured Corps is the component of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle. It includes most of the Army's armoured regiments, both the Royal Tank Regiment and those converted from old horse cavalry regiments. Today it comprises twelve regiments, eight regular and four reserve. Although the Household Cavalry Regiment provide an armoured regiment, they are not part of the RAC.
The Infantry of the British Army comprises 49 infantry battalions, from 19 regiments. Of these, 33 battalions are part of the Regular army and the remaining 16 a part of the Army Reserve. The British Army's Infantry takes on a variety of roles, including armoured, mechanised, air assault and light.
This is the Operation Telic order of battle, which lists the British forces that took part in Operation Telic, including
Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War.
British Forces Overseas Hong Kong comprised the elements of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force stationed in British Hong Kong. The Governor of Hong Kong also assumed the position of the commander-in-chief of the forces and the Commander British Forces in Hong Kong took charge of the daily deployment of the troops. Much of the British military left prior to the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The present article focuses mainly on the British garrison in Hong Kong in the post Second World War era. For more information concerning the British garrison during the Second World War and earlier, see the Battle of Hong Kong.
The 52nd Lowland Volunteers is a battalion in the British Army's Army Reserve or reserve force in the Scottish Lowlands, forming the 6th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, also known as 6 SCOTS. Due to its erstwhile association with the 1st Regiment of Foot, it is the senior Reserve line infantry battalion in the British Army. It is one of two Reserve battalions in the Royal Regiment of Scotland, along with 51st Highland, a similar unit located in the Scottish Highlands.
The 51st Highland Volunteers is a battalion in the British Army's Army Reserve or reserve force in the Scottish Highlands, forming the 7th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, also known as 7 SCOTS. It is one of two Reserve battalions in the Royal Regiment of Scotland, along with 52nd Lowland, a similar unit located in the Scottish Lowlands.
The British Army is listed according to an order of precedence for the purposes of parading. This is the order in which the various corps of the army parade, from right to left, with the unit at the extreme right being highest. Under ordinary circumstances, the Household Cavalry parades at the extreme right of the line. Militia and Army Reserve units take precedence after Regular units with the exception of The Honourable Artillery Company and The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers.
A Scottish regiment is any regiment that at some time in its history has or had a name that referred to Scotland or some part thereof, and adopted items of Scottish dress. These regiments were created after the Acts of Union in 1707 between England and Scotland, either directly serving Britain during its various wars, or as part of the military establishments of Commonwealth countries. Their "Scottishness" is no longer necessarily due to recruitment in Scotland nor any proportion of members of Scottish ancestry.
The Royal Regiment of Scotland is the senior and only Scottish line infantry regiment of the British Army Infantry. It consists of three regular and two reserve battalions, plus an incremental company, each formerly an individual regiment. However, three regular battalions maintain their former regimental pipes and drums to carry on the traditions of their antecedent regiments.
The 11th Security Force Assistance Brigade is a brigade of the British Army which is intended to train and assist foreign forces. In 2021, under the Future Army changes, the brigade was redesignated, formerly being the 11th Infantry Brigade & HQ South East. Prior to the Army 2020 changes in 2013, the brigade was temporarily activated for deployment to Afghanistan, and before that engaged during the two World Wars.
The 1957 White Paper on Defence was a British white paper issued in March 1957 setting forth the perceived future of the British military. It had profound effects on all aspects of the defence industry but probably the most affected was the British aircraft industry. Duncan Sandys, the recently appointed Minister of Defence, produced the paper. The decisions were influenced by two major factors: the finances of the country and the coming of the missile age.
The Lanarkshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1819, which served as a dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and provided two field artillery regiments in the Second World War, before being amalgamated into The Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry in 1956. Its lineage was revived by B Squadron, the Scottish Yeomanry in 1992 until that unit was disbanded in 1999.
There are 13 Cavalry Regiments of the British Army each with its own unique cap badge, regimental traditions, and history. Of the currently nine regular cavalry regiments, two serve as armoured regiments, three as armoured cavalry regiments, three as light cavalry, and one as a mounted ceremonial regiment. There are also four yeomanry regiments of the Army Reserve, of these, three serve as light cavalry and one as an armoured regiment. Each yeomanry light cavalry unit has been paired with a regular unit of the same role, the armoured yeomanry unit is paired with the two regular armoured units. All except the Household Cavalry are part of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps.
The 6th Canadian Infantry Division was an infantry division of the Canadian Army, formed in 1942 during the Second World War. It was attached to Pacific Command. The division had a brigade sent to the Aleutian Islands Campaign, particularly at Kiska, but never saw action. The 6th Division was to have been part of a proposed Commonwealth Corps, formed for a planned invasion of Japan, but was disbanded in 1945, after the war was ended by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A large regiment is a multi-battalion infantry formation of the British Army. First formed in the 1960s, large regiments are the result of the amalgamation of a number of existing single-battalion regiments, and perpetuate the traditions of each of the predecessor units.
The structure of the British Army is being reorganised to the Future Soldier structure. The Army is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), with Army Headquarters which is located in Andover, Hampshire. Subordinate to that post, there is a Commander Field Army, and a personnel and UK operations command, Home Command.
The following is a hierarchical outline for the structure of the British Army in 1989. The most authoritative source for this type of information available is Ministry of Defence, Master Order of Battle, and United Kingdom Land Forces, HQ UKLF, UKLF ORBAT Review Action Plan, HQ UKLF, 1990.
Future Soldier is a reform of the British Army resulting from the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy published in March 2021. The aim of the reform is to create a more lethal, agile and expeditionary force, able to fight and win wars and to operate in the grey-zone between peace and war. Future Soldier was published on 25 November 2021 and deals with the organizational changes of the British Army, with changes to personnel and equipment were set out in the Defence in a Competitive Age paper published on 22 March 2021.
