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Options for Change

{{Short description|1990 post–Cold War restructuring of the British Army}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2019}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}

Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War.{{cite hansard|title=Defence (Options for Change)|house=House of Commons|date=25 July 1990|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-07-25/Debate-1.html|column_start=468|column_end=486}}

Until this point, UK military strategy had been almost entirely focused on defending Western Europe against the Soviet Armed Forces, with the Royal Marines in Scandinavia, the Royal Air Force (RAF) in West Germany and over the North Sea, the Royal Navy in the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic, and the British Army in Germany.{{cite book|last=Freedman|first=Lawrence|title=The Politics of British Defence, 1979–97|date=18 August 1999|publisher=Macmillan Press|isbn=0-333746-67-8}}

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact occurring between 1989 and 1991, the threat of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe fell away. While the restructuring was criticised by several British politicians, it was an exercise mirrored by governments in almost every major Western military power, reflecting the so-called peace dividend.{{cite book |last1=Clements |first1=Benedict J. |last2=Schiff |first2=Jerald Alan |last3=Debaere |first3=Peter |last4=Davoodi |first4=Hamid Reza |title=Military Spending, the Peace Dividend, and Fiscal Adjustment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dz5nWM7M2TIC&pg=PA3 |publisher=International Monetary Fund |date=1 July 1999 |isbn=978-1-4518-9700-5}}

Total manpower was cut by approximately 18 per cent to around 255,000 (120,000 army; 60,000 navy; 75,000 air force).

Other casualties of the restructuring were the UK's nuclear civil defence organisations – the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and its field force, the Royal Observer Corps (a part-time volunteer branch of the RAF), both disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995.{{cite news |title=End of the Long Lookout |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12056017.End_of_the_long_lookout/ |newspaper=The Herald |location=Glasgow |date=29 December 1995 |access-date=9 November 2015}}

British Army

  • Halving the troop strength in Germany by replacing the British Army of the Rhine with British Forces Germany in 1994.
  • Several British Army regiments amalgamated:{{cite web|url=http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/lists/ba1995.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217194725/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/lists/ba1995.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-12-17|title=British Army Roll of Regiments 1995|date=2007-12-17|access-date=2020-03-20}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/lists/ta1995.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217071116/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/lists/ta1995.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-12-17|title=Regiments & Corps of the British Territorial Army 1995|date=2007-12-17|access-date=2020-03-20}}{{cite web|url=http://british-army-units1945on.co.uk/|title=British Army units from 1945 on - Welcome|website=british-army-units1945on.co.uk|access-date=2020-03-20}}Much information also from the regimental histories available at the army website (Those new units which were formed are in bold, not all units are shown, only those which changed, for full list see: List of British Regular Army regiments (1994))
  • Brigade of Gurkhas:
  • Regimental Headquarters, The Gurkha Engineers disbanded
  • The Royal Gurkha Rifles formed by amalgamation of: 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles), 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles, 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles, and 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles, 3 Battalion establishment
  • The Queen's Own Gurkha Transport Regiment formed by grouping of former independent Gurkha transport squadrons

= Royal Corps of Signals =

=Royal Armoured Corps=

Overall the Royal Armoured Corps was a merger of 18 regiments, this was achieved by the formation of 10 new regiments through amalgamations and new formations.

Bands

Regulars

Territorial Army

=Infantry=

= Royal Artillery =

= Corps of Royal Engineers =

Regulars

  • Commander Royal Engineers (Airfields) formed to control non-deployable royal engineer airfield elements at RAF bases in the UK
  • 29th (Volunteer) Engineer Brigade along with its signal troop disbanded
  • 30th (Volunteer) Engineer Brigade along with its signal troop disbanded
  • 26th Engineer Regiment disbanded
  • 1st Royal School of Military Engineering Regiment formed by amalgamation of the Depot Regiment, Royal Engineers and 12th Royal School of Military Engineer Regiments, Royal Engineers
  • 3rd Royal School of Military Engineering Regiment formed by amalgamation of 1st Training and 3rd Training Regiments, Royal Engineers

Territorial Army

= Other Corps =

Royal Air Force

=Strike Command=

=RAF Germany=

  • Closure of RAF Wildenrath in April 1992 and RAF Gutersloh in March 1993, halving the number of RAF bases in Germany.{{cite web|url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/rafhistorytimeline199099.cfm|title=RAF Timeline 1990–99|publisher=Ministry of Defence|access-date=9 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924124845/http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/rafhistorytimeline199099.cfm|archive-date=24 September 2015|url-status=dead}}
  • Disbandment of Wildenrath's two Phantom air defence squadrons (Nos. 19 and 92 Squadrons).
  • Disbandment of the three RAF Laarbruch Tornado strike/attack squadrons (Nos. XV, 16, and 20 Squadrons), and the transfer of No. II Squadron to Marham.
  • Transfer of the Harriers of Nos. 3 and 4 Squadrons and the Chinooks of No. 18 Squadron from Gutersloh to Laarbruch, and the transfer of No. 230 Squadron from Gutersloh to RAF Aldergrove.

RAF Germany itself was disbanded on 1 April 1993, being downgraded to group-level and becoming No. 2 Group of Strike Command.

=Procurement=

  • Cancelling the Brimstone air-to-surface missile project (later restarted).

Royal Navy

On television

A dramatisation of the effects that Options for Change had on the ordinary men and women serving in the armed forces came in the ITV series Soldier Soldier. The fictional infantry regiment portrayed in the series, the King's Fusiliers, was one of those selected for amalgamation. It showed the whole process of negotiation over traditions, embellishments, etc. between the two regiments involved, and the uncertainty that many of those serving felt for their jobs in the light of two separate battalions merging into one, with the resulting loss of manpower.

See also

  • {{Annotated link|Delivering Security in a Changing World}}
  • {{Annotated link|Front Line First}}
  • {{Annotated link|Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010}}
  • {{Annotated link|Strategic Defence Review (1998)}} (1998)

References

{{Reflist}}

{{UK Defence Review}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Options For Change}}

Category:1990 in military history

Category:1990 in politics

Category:1990 in the United Kingdom

Category:20th-century military history of the United Kingdom

Category:British defence policymaking

Category:Defence white papers

Category:Military reforms