Commander Land Forces - History and Prospects

History and Prospects

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. 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. 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.

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).

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 and known as "Army Headquarters". The posts of Commander-in-Chief and Commander, Field Army have ceased to exist.

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:

• 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. To ensure costs are kept down, the MOD's proposal will be to station units as close as possible to training areas. Therefore, it is planned that 19 (Light) Brigade, stationed in Northern Ireland, will be 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 from Spring 2012.