Options for Change

Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in 1990, aimed at cutting defence spending following the end of the Cold War.

UK military strategy had until this point been almost entirely focused on defending the UK against the Soviet military; whether the Royal Marines in Scandinavia, the Royal Air Force in West Germany or over the North Sea, the Royal Navy in the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic, or the British Army in Germany. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact these scenarios were no longer relevant. While criticised both before and after, it was an exercise mirrored by governments of almost every major western military power, the so-called "peace dividend".

Among the changes implemented was the cutting total manpower by approximately 18% to around 255,000 (120,000 British Army; 60,000 Royal Navy; 75,000 Royal Air Force). Another major casualty of Options for Change was the UK's combined nuclear civil defence organisations — the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and its field force the Royal Observer Corps (a spare time volunteer branch of the RAF), both of which were wound down and disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995.

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:

Infantry

• The Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) - 1 battalion
  • The Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons)
  • The Gordon Highlanders
• The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires) - 2 battalions
  • The Queen's Regiment
  • The Royal Hampshire Regiment
• The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment - 1 battalion
  • The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment
  • The Gloucestershire Regiment
• The Royal Gurkha Rifles - 3 battalions (later reduced to two)
  • 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles
  • 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles
  • 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles
  • 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles
• The Royal Irish Regiment (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd, 87th and Ulster Defence Regiment) - 2 general service battalions (later reduced to one)
  • The Royal Irish Rangers (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd and 87th)
  • The Ulster Defence Regiment
• In addition, seven regiments each lost a battalion:
  • Grenadier Guards
  • Coldstream Guards
  • Scots Guards
  • The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
  • The Royal Anglian Regiment
  • The Light Infantry
  • The Royal Green Jackets

The amalgamation of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers into the Royal Scots Borderers (1 battalion) and the Cheshire Regiment and Staffordshire Regiment into the Cheshire and Staffordshire Regiment (1 battalion) was announced, but suspended in 1994.

Cavalry

• The Household Cavalry Regiment (each retained regimental identity)
  • The Life Guards
  • The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons)
• The King's Royal Hussars
  • The Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)
  • 14th/20th King's Hussars
• The Light Dragoons
  • 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own)
  • 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars
• The Queen's Royal Hussars (Queen's Own and Royal Irish)
  • The Queen's Own Hussars
  • The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars
• The Queen's Royal Lancers
  • 16th/5th Queen's Royal Lancers
  • 17th/21st Lancers
• The Royal Dragoon Guards
  • 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards
  • 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards

Services

• Royal Logistic Corps
  • Royal Corps of Transport
  • Royal Army Ordnance Corps
  • Royal Pioneer Corps
  • Army Catering Corps
  • Postal and Courier Service, Royal Engineers

• Adjutant General's Corps
  • Royal Army Educational Corps
  • Royal Army Pay Corps
  • Women's Royal Army Corps
  • Army Legal Corps
  • Corps of Royal Military Police
  • Military Provost Staff Corps

Royal Air Force

• Halving the number of RAF bases in Germany to two
• Withdrawing the F-4 Phantom II squadrons from service
• Cancellation of the Brimstone missile, although it was later reinstated.

Royal Navy

• Cutting the number of frigates and destroyers from around 50 to 40.

On television

A fictionalised portrayal of the effects of Options for Change on the ordinary men and women serving in the armed forces came in the ITV drama series Soldier Soldier. In this, the fictional infantry regiment portrayed in the series, the King's Fusiliers, was one of those selected for amalgamation. The series showed the whole process of negotiation regarding traditions, embellishments, etc. between the two regiments involved, and of 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

• List of British Army regiments (1994) - British Army regiments after the defence cuts.
• Front Line First (1994)
• Strategic Defence Review (1998)
• Delivering Security in a Changing World: Future Capabilities (2004)