Field Army (United Kingdom)

The Field Army is a command of the British Army 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 was formed, and the post of Deputy Commander-in-Chief, UK Land Forces was created, with the holder having the rank of Lieutenant General. In 1982, as a result of the 1981 Defence White Paper, 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 or Commander, Transport and Movements (Royal Corps of Transport).

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 defence review.

Land Command was later divided in 2003, under the LANDmark reorganisation, into two suborganisations, Field Army and Regional Forces, that paralleled the Cold War structure of UKLF. 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 and as the lead nation of Multi-National Division (South-East) in Iraq. This was based in York 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". The post of Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces 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 government announced significant changes to the structure of the formations under Land Forces that would be implemented from 2010 - 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 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.

Commanders
Following the 1966 Defence White Paper, United Kingdom Land Forces was formed, and the post of Deputy Commander-in-Chief, UK Land Forces was created, with the holder having the rank of Lieutenant General. In 1982, as a result of the 1981 Defence White Paper, this post was redesignated as Commander, United Kingdom Field Army, typically shortened to just 'Commander Field Army'. Commander Field Army oversaw several 'deputy commanders', including one each for the services such as Commander, Royal Corps of Signals or Commander, Transport and Movements (Royal Corps of Transport). The Commander Field Army worked as the official field commander for UK Land Forces during this period, though the post was disestablished in 1995 following the Options for Change.

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