The Field Army is a command of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

responsible for generating and preparing forces for current and contingency operations. Commander Field Army reports to the Chief of the General Staff.

Background

Following the 1966 Defence White Paper,

United Kingdom Land Forces United Kingdom Land Forces was a command of the British Army responsible for generating and preparing forces for current and contingency operations. The commander of the forces was known as Commander-in-Chief, United Kingdom Land Forces, who in ...

was formed, and the post of Deputy Commander-in-Chief, UK Land Forces was created, with the holder having the rank of

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

. In 1982, as a result of the

1981 Defence White Paper The 1981 Defence White Paper (titled "The UK Defence Programme: The Way Forward") was a major review of the United Kingdom's defence policy brought about by the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative government under the Prime Minister Margaret Tha ...

, this post was redesignated as Commander, United Kingdom Field Army, typically shortened to just 'Commander Field Army'. Commander Field Army oversaw corps directors such as Commander,

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...

or Commander, Transport and Movements (

Royal Corps of Transport The Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) was a British Army Corps established to manage all matters in relation to the transport of men and material for the Army and the wider defence forces. It was formed in 1965 and disbanded in 1993; its units and tr ...

). United Kingdom Field Army was headquartered at Erskine Barracks in Wilton and responsible for organising home defence forces. The UK Field Army was described by senior officers as "roughly the home equivalent of the British Corps in West Germany", but its commander told Beevor that it was 'not a coherent organisation'. UK Field Army was responsible for all out-of-area operations, training, and home administration. By 1991, the United Kingdom Field Army presided over nearly 40,000 regular soldiers, just over 70,000 members of the Territorial Army (TA), and 6,000 civilians. In addition to the UK Field Army's defence commitments, the Field Army was responsible for aid to the civil authority. The post was disestablished in 1995 following the

Options for Change Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War. Until this point, UK military strategy had been almost entirely focused on defending Western Europe against the Soviet Armed Forces ...

defence review.Beevor, pp. 230–231 Land Command was later divided in 2003, under the LAND''mark'' reorganisation, into two suborganisations, Field Army and Regional Forces, that paralleled the Cold War structure of UKLF.Lt Col Richard Quinlan, R Signals, HQ Theatre Troops, in News From Formations, The Wire, April 2003, p.127 Commander Field Army had two deployable divisions (1st Armoured Division, 3rd Mechanised Division), Theatre Troops, Joint Helicopter Command, and Training Support under him. 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 Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and as the lead nation of Multi-National Division (South-East) in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. This was based in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

and formed around the re-established 6th Division.

Field Army

Under another reorganisation effective from 1 November 2011 the Chief of the General Staff took direct command of the Army through a new structure, based at Andover, known as " Army Headquarters".Army Command reorganization
Defence Marketing Intelligence, 10 November 2011 The post of

Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces (CINCLAND), was a senior officer in the British Army. CINCLAND commanded Commander Land Forces, HQ Land Forces, an administrative apparatus that had responsibility for all of the army's fighting units in the United ...

ceased to exist. In its place a new post of Commander, Land Forces was created, to be held by a lieutenant general (three-star rank). Following the

Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 was announced by the formed Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government of the United Kingdom in May 2010, and published on 19 October 2010. The previous major review of UK defence strategy was ...

, the government announced significant changes to the structure of the formations under Land Forces that would be implemented from 2010 - 2020:Defence equipment budget rises as Future Force takes shape
- MOD, 18/07/11 * Field Army: By 2020, the total withdrawal of British forces stationed in Germany will be complete, and the Army's operational structure will be formed around a total of five multi-role brigades (MRB); these will be taken from the two brigades currently stationed in Germany under 1st Armoured Division, and three of the four in the UK under 3rd Mechanised Division. To ensure costs are kept down, the MOD's proposal will be to station units as close as possible to training areas. In this process, 19 Light Brigade in Northern Ireland was disbanded. * Regional Forces: While the regional forces elements have been retained at brigade level, with all ten regional brigades remaining as they are, the regional divisional HQs ( 2nd Division, 4th Division and 5th Division) were replaced with a single 2-star regional headquarters at Aldershot known as Support Command from Spring 2012. When Personnel Support Command was established in 2015, it was decided that the role of SJC(UK) Commander was to transfer to Commander PSC in Aldershot. In due course PSC became Home Command. On 23 November 2015, it was announced that the post of Commander Land Forces would be renamed as Commander Field Army as part of the Army Command Review. CFA will have four brigadiers under their command, namely: Assistant Chief of Staff Commitments, Assistant Chief of Staff Support, Assistant Chief of Staff Warfare and Assistant Chief of Staff Training. During the reorganisation, the post of Assistant Chief of Staff (Warfare) was to be held by the Director, Land Warfare Centre. Land Operations Command was established on 2 September 2019 as a staff branch within Headquarters Field Army in Andover. Through it, Commander Field Army conducts the planning, generation and operational control of all Field Army deployments.

List of structures

End of Cold War (1989)

Future Army Structure (2008)

Army 2020 (2015)

Army 2020 Refine (2021)

Future Soldier (2030)

Commanders

In November 2015, the post of Commander Land Forces was redesignated as Commander Field Army.

Footnotes

Notes

Citations

References

* {{Cite book, last=Beevor, first=Antony, title=Inside the British Army, publisher=Corgi Books, year=1991, isbn=978-0552138185, location=Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom, oclc=634173988

External links

Army Command Structure as 2019
* A Guide to Invitations and Appointments for High Commissions and Embassies in London,

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

, June 2006 edition Commands of the British Army Military units and formations established in 2011