British Army restructures to confront evolving threats

The British Army has outlined its plans to rebalance the Field Army to ensure that it can compete with and defeat adversaries both above and below the threshold of conventional conflict.

Whilst retaining its operational focus, the intention is to rebalance the Army’s formations in order to meet the challenges of constant competition and maintain its high-end warfighting capability.

Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army (CFA), has described plans for rebalancing his command which will see changes to the structure of the Field Army’s primary formations.

Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army said that “the Field Army must build on the strong foundation of the 3rd Division’s world class warfighting force. 1st Division provides specialist soldiers and equipment to develop other nations’ armies, deal with disaster and humanitarian crises worldwide and enable our warfighting division. 6th Division focuses on Cyber, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence, Information Operations and unconventional warfare through niche capabilities such as the Specialised Infantry Battalions.” He added that “he speed of change is moving at a remarkable rate and it will only get faster and more complex.”

This change will be integrated within broader Defence, national and alliance efforts and enable the Field Army to operate and fight more effectively above and below the threshold of conflict. The Field Army rebalancing is part of the Army’s response to the emerging Defence thinking and will create a Field Army of integrated, interdependent and complementary formations from 1 Aug 2019.

There will be no changes to personnel numbers, resourcing, cap badges or locations.