General Information
The British Armed Forces, AKA Her Majesty’s Armed Forces or the Armed Forces of the Crown, cover 3 professional uniformed services: the Royal Navy (with the Royal Marines), the British Army, and the Royal Air Force. The Commander-in-Chief is the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, to whom members of the forces swear allegiance.
Additional Information
Under British constitutional law, the armed forces are subordinate to the Crown, however, this power is qualified by the requirement for parliamentary consent to the maintaining of a standing army and Parliament’s approval of taxation and supply of funds for the armed forces.
Under the 1689 Bill of Rights no standing army may be maintained during time of peace without the consent of Parliament. In modern times Parliament gives this consent every five years by passing an Armed Forces Act.
Upon the Act of Union in 1707, the armed forces of England and Scotland were merged into the armed forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Between 1707 and 1914, British forces played a prominent role in notable conflicts including the Seven Years’ War, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Crimean War.
Consistent with long-standing constitutional convention, the Prime Minister holds de facto authority over the use of the armed forces. The armed forces are managed by the Defence Council of the Ministry of Defence, headed by the Secretary of State for Defence. The current structure of defence management in Britain was set in place in 1964, when the modern day Ministry of Defence was created. It assumed the roles of the Admiralty, the War Office and the Air Ministry.
The British Armed Forces constitute the second-largest military in the European Union in terms of professional staff. It has a personnel of about 227,160 people and 174,800 regular reserves from all services of the British Armed Forces.
The Royal Navy is building two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, embarking an air-group including the advanced fifth-generation multi-role fighter, the F-35B. Seven Astute class nuclear-powered attack submarines have been ordered, with two completed and four under construction. The Astute class are the most advanced and largest fleet submarines ever built for the Royal Navy. Britain is one of five recognised nuclear powers, with a total of 225 nuclear warheads, of which 160 are deployed and active.
Structure: Highlights
The British Armed forces consist of three main branches subdivided into smaller units. Those main branches are the Naval Service, the British Army and the Royal Air Force.
Structure: Explained
The Naval Service is the naval warfare and maritime service structure of the British Armed Forces. It primarily consists of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Referred to as the ‘Senior Service’ by virtue of its being the oldest service within the British Armed Forces, the Royal Navy is a technologically sophisticated naval force, consisting of 79 commissioned ships and 173 aircraft. The United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent is carried aboard the navy’s Vanguard-class of four nuclear ballistic-missile submarines. The surface fleet consists of helicopter carriers, destroyers, frigates, amphibious assault ships, patrol ships, mine-countermeasures, and miscellaneous vessels. A submarine service has existed within the Royal Navy for more than 100 years. The service possessed a combined fleet of diesel-electric and nuclear-powered submarines until the early 1990s. Following the Options for Change defence review, the Upholder class diesel-electric submarines were withdrawn and the attack submarine flotilla is now exclusively nuclear-powered.
The infantry component of the Naval Service is the Corps of Royal Marines. Consisting of a single manoeuvre brigade and various independent units, the Royal Marines specialise in amphibious, arctic, and mountain warfare.
The 19 commissioned ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) primarily serve to replenish Royal Navy warships at sea, and also augment the Royal Navy’s amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class landing ship dock vessels.
The British Army is made up of the Regular Army and the Territorial Army. The core element of the Army are the 50 battalions (36 regular and 14 territorial) of regular and territorial infantry, organised into 17 regiments. Regiments and battalions exist within every corps of the Army, functioning as administrative or tactical formations.
The Royal Air Force has a large operational fleet that fulfils various roles, consisting of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. As of January 2012, the RAF operates around 827 aircraft. The Royal Air Forces operate multi-role and single-role fighters, reconnaissance and patrol aircraft, tankers, transports, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and various types of training aircraft. Ground units are also maintained by the Royal Air Force, most prominently the RAF Police and the Royal Air Force Regiment.