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Commander Land Forces is a senior British Army officer who has responsibility for generating and preparing forces for current and contingency operations. He reports to the Chief of the General Staff who has executive responsibility for the higher command of the British Army. The responsibilities of the Commander Land Forces were exercised through Land Command from 1 April 1995 to 1 April 2008. From 1 April 2008, HQ Land Command, with elements of HQ Adjutant-General, became HQ Land Forces. From 1 November 2011, HQ Land Forces was subsumed within the new formation known as Army Headquarters.
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The headquarters was formed from Southern Command in 1968 and was initially called Army Strategic Command. In 1972 it became UK Land Forces and in 1995 it was renamed Land Command.
Land Command assumed control of almost all British Army combat and combat support troops on 1 April 1995.[1] Three major exceptions were British Forces Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, and HQ Northern Ireland. In the last of those, the General Officer commanding reported to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for operations in support of the civil power. Headquarters Northern Ireland was reduced in status to 38th (Irish) Brigade on 1 January 2009.
On 1 April 2008 Land Command amalgamated with Headquarters Adjutant General under 'Project Hyperion' and became Land Forces.[2] It was located at Erskine Barracks, Fugglestone, Wilton, Wiltshire, but moved to the former RAF Andover site on 23 June 2010, now known as Marlborough Lines.[3]
Commander-in-Chief Land Forces (CINCLAND) also became the Standing Joint Commander (UK) or SJC(UK), responsible for overall command to Ministry of Defence contributions to national crisis response activities within the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland).[4]
Under a major army command reorganisation effective 1 November 2011 the Chief of the General Staff took direct command of the Army through a new structure, based at Andover[5] and known as "Army Headquarters".[6][7] The posts of Commander-in-Chief and Commander, Field Army have ceased to exist.[6] However, as of December 2011, the Commander, Land Forces, is the same officer (General Sir Nick Parker) that was the last Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces, and has retained his four-star full general rank.
Following the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010, the government announced significant changes to the structure of the formations under Land Forces that would be implemented in the years up to 2020:[8]
Land Command was initially divided up into eight formations, each one commanded by a Major General, and several smaller units including the training units and training support units in Belize, Brunei, Canada (Suffield for armoured battlegroups and Wainwright for infantry units) and Kenya. The reduction of army districts announced in December 1998 reduced that to six, with Scotland and London losing their formal district status. While London District was reduced to a Brigade headquarters, with the retention of a Major General commanding and its "District" title, it seems likely that it retains an importance considerably surpassing the normal regional brigade HQ.
Land Command was later divided in 2003, under the LANDmark reorganisation, into two suborganisations, Field Army and Regional Forces, that paralled the Cold War structure of UKLF.[9] Commander Field Army had 2 deployable Divisions (1st Armoured Division, 3rd Mechanised Division), Theatre Troops, Joint Helicopter Command, and Training Support under him, while Commander Regional Forces was responsible for 3 regenerative Divisions (2nd Division, 4th Division, 5th Division), London District, and UK Support Command Germany. In 2007 it was announced that a new deployable divisional HQ would be established until at least 2011 as a means of meeting the UK's commitments to provide divisional HQs on a rotational basis to Regional Command (South) in Afghanistan and as the lead nation of Multi-National Division (South-East) in Iraq. This was based in York and formed around the re-established 6th Division.[10]
HQs 2, 4, and 5 Divisions (originally referred to as Regenerative Divisions), plus the London District effectively acted as military districts in the UK itself; the divisions would only have been able to generate field formations in the event of a general war. UK Support Command Germany forms the district HQ for personnel based in Germany that are not attached to 1st Armoured Division.
London District's most public concern is the administration of ceremonial units and provision of garrisons for such installations as the Tower of London. However, its primary responsibility is to maintain units directly for the defence of the capital. 56 (London) Brigade was disbanded in 1993.
The British Army has only eight genuinely operational, deployable brigade groups – the seven incorporated in 1 Armoured Division and 3 Mechanised Division, plus 16 Air Assault Brigade. 3 Commando Brigade, a Naval Service formation formed predominantly by units of the Royal Marines but with significant army support, is under the direct command of the Commander in Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET). In November 2007, the MOD announced the temporary creation of another deployable brigade, designated as 11 Light Brigade, which will command the Operation Herrick rotation between October 2009 and April 2010.[11]
The numerous other ‘brigades’ within 2, 4, and 5 Divisions would be better described as regional districts whose function is to administer all Territorial Army units within their area and to coordinate the provision of support to the civil authority if necessary, as well as home defence tasks. An example was the coordination of military support the regional brigades did during the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001. The fourteen new Civil Contingency Response Forces (CCRFs), each parented by a TA infantry battalion, are also linked into this structure.[12] They form force elements which may be called on, alongside regular units, by the established chain of command (Ministry of Defence, HQ Land Forces, Divisional HQs and Regional Brigades) in the event of a request for military assistance by the civil authorities.
There are, in addition to those already mentioned, a number of specialist brigades which bring together under a single administrative apparatus several units performing similar functions. There are two logistic brigades 102 Logistic Brigade in Gernmany and 101 Logistic Brigade which contain logistic units to support the two deployable divisions directly. Additionally 104 Logistic Support Brigade operates the specialist units needed to deploy a force overseas such as pioneers, movements and port units. These brigades come under the authority of the GOC, Theatre Troops.
All of the formation reconnaissance regiments not attached to either 1st Armoured Division or 3rd Mechanised Division are grouped together under the administration of 1 Armoured Reconnaissance Brigade, while the similarly unattached artillery regiments come under either 1 Artillery Brigade or 7 Air Defence Brigade.
16 Air Assault Brigade is an independent formation that can be deployed either independently or as part of a higher formation. For administrative purposes, it is part of 5 Division. It was planned that 42 (North-West) Brigade will be transferred to 5th Division at some point, coinciding with 38 (Irish) Brigade transferring to 2nd Division. No date for this had seemingly been set before the reorganisation of HQ Land Forces and merge into Army Headquarters.
See Article Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces
Note 1: ^ 52 Infantry Brigade was transferred to 3rd (UK) Division on 1 April 2007.
Note 2: ^ 43 (Wessex) Brigade was transferred to 4th Division on 1 April 2007.
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