British Army

  

Not to be confused with English Army.

British Army
Active	January 1, 1660 (1660-01-01)
Country	United Kingdom
Type	Army
Role	Land warfare
Size	160,040 active personnel (2021) 3,960 Gurkhas (2021) 55,740 reserves (2021)
Part of	British Armed Forces
March	List of marches of the British Armed Forces
Commanders
Commander-in-chief	King George V
Chief of the General Staff	Field Marshal Nigel Clark
Deputy Chief of the General Staff	General Winston Snow
Army Sergeant Major	Warrant Officer Class 1 Charles Hambridge
Insignia
War flag
Non-ceremonial flag
Logo

The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom and is one of the three main branches of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. As of 2021, the British Army has a total of 160,040 active duty personnel along with 55,740 personnel in the Territorial Army and 3,960 Gurkha soldiers.

The modern British Army traces its rutes back to the ascendants of the English Army and Scots Army that were merged to create one unified fighting force during the Restoration of 1660. In wouldn't be until 1707 with the Acts of Union between England and Scotland that the term British Army would be formally adopted. Members of the British Armty give a formal swear of allegiance to the monarch as the army's ceremonial commander-in-chief, however both the Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Claim of Right Act 1689 both require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a standing army. In practice, this results in Parliament passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years. The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and is overseen by the Chief of the General Staff as its overall commander.

The British Army initially composed of two arms; the Regulary Forces composed of the infantry and the cavalry and the Ordnance Military Corps which composed of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Sappers and Miners under the administration of the Board of Ordnance and the civilian Commissariat Department. Both were tasked the supply, storing of equipment, as well as the barracks of the army before they were dissolved in 1855 and merged into the War Office. In 1964, the Ministry of Defence was created as a replacement of the War Office which has overseen the army and the rest of the British military since then.

The British Army has seen active combat over the course of over three centuries as one of the world's great powers including the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Crimean War of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century, the British Army saw action during the Great War and also saw active combat and deployments throughout the Cold War from the Vietnam War to several colonial-related conflicts. Because of their victories and inspite of their defeat, the British Army has prevailed as one of the most formidable armies in the world and has established the United Kingdom as one of the world's foremost economic and military powers. Since the end of the Cold War in 2000, the British Army has seen continued action overseas in various conflict zones, often as an expeditionary force, as part of a coalition, or in League of Nations peacekeeping operations.

History

Main article: History of the British Army

The Great War

Main article: British Army during the Great War

Cold War (1958–2000)

Vietnam War

Main article: United Kingdom in the Vietnam War

Modern history (2000–present)

Syrian Civil War

Main article: Syrian Civil War

Modern army

Equipment

Main article: List of equipment of the British Army

Command, control, and organization

Main article: Structure of the British Army

The Chief of the General Staff is the professional head of the British Army, and is assisted in his role by the Deputy Chief, along with other staff officers at the Army Headquarters in Andover, Hampshire. He is a member of the Army Board, a department of the Ministry of Defence which is tasked with the administrative day-to-day management of the service, and the Defence Council of the United Kingdom. The Army Board is tasked with overseeing the Army for the purpose of organizing and providing logistical and administrative support, along with strategic guidance, to maintain the combat readiness of the force.

Land Forces

The Commander-in-Chief United Kingdom Land Forces commands the active combat units of the Regular Army and is responsible for generating forces to carry out operations. The main combat formations subordinated to Land Forces Headquarters include:

• 1st (United Kingdom) Armoured Division
• 2nd (United Kingdom) Mechanised Division
• 3rd (United Kingdom) Armoured Division
• 5th (United Kingdom) Mechanised Division
• 6th (United Kingdom) Mechanised Division
• 146th Separate Infantry Brigade

Home Command

The Commander Home Command leads a support command that is responsible for the recruitment and training of personnel for the British Army. Its main components include the following:

• Army Personnel Centre: Responsible for personnel assignments and promotions, as well as providing support to personnel.
• Army Training and Recruitment Command: Responsible for recruitment, training, and education of personnel.
• Regional Command: consists of regional administrative divisions for raising and maintaining regiments in different parts of Great Britain and some of its Overseas Territories. These include the Guards Division; Scottish and Welsh Division; King's Division; Queen's Division; Parachute Regiment; Royal Gurkha Rifles; and The Rifles.

Special Forces

The British Army contributes two of the three special forces formations to the United Kingdom Special Forces directorate: the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR).

Ranks and insignia

Main articles: British Army officer rank insignia and British Army other ranks rank insignia

Officers

Pay grade	General officers				Senior officers				Junior officers			Officer candidates
	Special grade	O-10	O-9	O-8	O-7	O-6	O-5	O-4	O-3	O-2	O-1	Special grade
British Army (Edit)
	Field marshal	General	Lieutenant general	Major general	Brigadier	Colonel	Lieutenant colonel	Major	Captain	Lieutenant	Second lieutenant	Officer candidate

Enlisted

Pay grade	Senior NCOs					Junior NCOs					Enlisted
	OR-9			OR-8		OR-7	OR-6	OR-5	OR-4	OR-3	OR-2	OR-1
British Army (Edit)											N/A	N/A
	Warrant Officer class 1			Warrant Officer class 2		Colour Sergeant	Sergeant		Corporal	Lance corporal	Private

Reserve forces

Main article: Territorial Army

Uniforms

• 

  A selection of standard uniforms worn by British Army personnel.

See also

• Army Cadet Force (ACF)
• British Army order of precedence
• Army 2020 Refine
• Ministry of Defence

Attribution notices

• This page uses material from the Wikipedia page British Army, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).