Future of the British Army (Army 2020)

Army 2020, formerly known as Future Army Structure (Next Steps) or FAS (Next Steps), is the name given to an ongoing review of the structure of the British Army, and in particular its fighting brigades.

The British Government gave an indication of its proposals for the future structure of the British Army in early 2008 in a press report stating that it was considering restructuring the Army into a force of three deployable divisional headquarters and eight 'homogenous or identical' brigades, each with a spread of heavy, medium and light capabilities. This report indicated that the existing 16 Air Assault Brigade would be retained as a high-readiness rapid reaction force.

Subsequently, it was reported that the former Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, wanted to see the Army structured so as to extend the interval between operational tours from two to two-and-a-half years.

In 2010, the Strategic Defence and Security Review was published. As part of the plans, the British Army will be reduced by 23 regular units, and by 2020 will number 117,000 soldiers, of whom 82,000 will be regulars and 30,000 will be reservists. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 upgraded the number of reservists to 35,000, an increase of 5,000 on top of the then planned-for 30,000 reservists.

On 7 June 2012, the Secretary of State for Defence set out some key considerations for the future of the British Army.

Refinements to the plans following the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review became known as "Army 2020 Refine". Further changes were announced in a written statement in December 2016.

The originally envisaged future structure was announced on 19 July 2011 in a briefing paper entitled Defence Basing Review: Headline Decisions. This structure involved five identical multi-role brigades, each of around 6,500 personnel. However, in June 2012 a significantly different structure known as Army 2020 was announced.

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