Commander Field Army

Commander Field Army (CFA) is a senior British Army officer who has responsibility for generating and preparing forces for current and contingency operations. He reports to the Chief of the General Staff who has overall executive responsibility for the British Army.

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From 1 April 1995 to 1 April 2008, the last of the British Army's field force commands was Land Command. From 1 April 2008, HQ Land Command, with elements of HQ Adjutant-General, became HQ Land Forces. From 1 November 2011, HQ Land Forces was subsumed within the new Army Headquarters; at the same time the Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces was integrated into the new Army Headquarters command structure as Commander Land Forces.

On 23 November 2015, it was announced that the post of Commander Land Forces would be renamed as Commander Field Army (CFA) as part of the Army Command Review. CFA has a major-general as Chief of Staff, and four brigadiers working under him: Assistant Chief of Staff Commitments, Assistant Chief of Staff Support, Assistant Chief of Staff Warfare and Assistant Chief of Staff Training.[1]

As of 23 September 2020, the commanders listed below as well as Deputy Commander Field Army, Chief of Staff, Field Army and Director Land Warfare Centre fall under the command of CFA.[2]

History
HQ Land Forces, Marlborough Lines, Andover

On 1 April 2008, HQ Land Command amalgamated with HQ Adjutant General under 'Project Hyperion' and became HQ Land Forces.[3] It moved from Erskine Barracks to the former RAF Andover site now known as Marlborough Lines on 23 June 2010.[4]

Headquarters Northern Ireland was reduced in status to 38th (Irish) Brigade on 1 January 2009.

Commander-in-Chief Land Forces (CINCLAND) also became the Standing Joint Commander (UK) (SJC (UK)), responsible for overall command to Ministry of Defence contributions to national crisis response activities within the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland).[5]

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".[6][7][8] Within this new organisation, the rank of Commander, Land Forces was shifted to that of a three-star instead of the former four-star rank.[9] The post of Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces ceased to exist.[7]

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:[10]

  • 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.

This has been updated in the future plan commonly known as Army 2020. 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.[11] 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.[12]

Subordinate formations circa 2020

The current structure is as follows:[13][14][15][16][17]11th Signal Brigade has reassigned from 6th Division to 3rd Division as of 16 October 2020.[18][19]

Commanders
For the equivalent post prior to November 2011, see Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces.
Commander Land Forces
ImageRankNameTerm beganTerm ended
GeneralSir Nick ParkerNovember 2011December 2012
Lieutenant GeneralSir Adrian Bradshaw[22]January 2013November 2013
Lieutenant-GeneralSir Nick CarterNovember 2013September 2014
Lieutenant-GeneralSir James EverardSeptember 2014November 2015
Commander Field Army
ImageRankNameTerm beganTerm ended
Lieutenant GeneralSir James EverardNovember 2015December 2016
Lieutenant GeneralPatrick Sanders[23]December 2016March 2019
Lieutenant GeneralIvan Jones [24][25]March 2019

See also

References
  1. Described as having the following role in April 2017: "Responsible for the production and advocacy of relevant Tactical Doctrine, the systematic utilisation of experience, driving pan-capability learning, individual and collective training and the provision of a reach-back focus for deployed/deploying formations and units." Transparency Data, Army Command Senior, April 2017
  2. "How Defence Works version 6.0" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. UK Ministry of Defence. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020. page 30
  3. HQ Land Forces on the move Archived 7 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Drumbeat, June 2008
  4. Andover becomes HQ Land Forces on 23 June Andover Advertiser, 29 April 2010
  5. Interim Joint Doctrine Publication 2
  6. Correspondence from Army Secretariat
  7. Army Command reorganization Archived 12 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine Defence Marketing Intelligence, 10 November 2011
  8. Higher Command Archived 5 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Higher Command Archived 19 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Ministry of Defence
  10. Defence equipment budget rises as Future Force takes shape - MOD, 18/07/11
  11. "Flag raised to signal new HQ Field Army". 23 November 2015. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  12. "Letter from Army Headquarters" (PDF). Army Headquarters. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  13. "Army 2020 Report" (PDF). Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  14. "British Army Who we are: How the Army is structured". Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  15. "Army restructures to confront evolving threats". Ministry of Defence. London. 31 July 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  16. Burgess, Sally (1 August 2019). "British Army to train cyber spies to combat hackers and digital propaganda". Sky News. London. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  17. Nicholls, Dominic (1 August 2019). "British Army to engage in social media warfare as new cyber division unveiled". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  18. @3rdUKDivision (16 October 2020). "Today we welcome 11th Signals & West Midlands Bde to @3rdUKDivision.@R_Signals soldiers enable our command & control systems & are now with us at the forefront of national operations. Welcome to the Iron Division!@BritishArmy@3UKDivComdSM @11SigWMBde" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. "6th UK Division". army.mod.uk. British Army. 16 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  20. "6th (United Kingdom) Division". army.mod.uk. British Army. 1 August 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019. Specialised Infantry Group
  21. "How Defence Works Version 6.0" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. UK Ministry of Defence. 1 September 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020. Subordinate to CGS are two 3-star commanders and one 2-star commander...Commander Joint Helicopter Command
  22. Defence Viewpoints, Up and Out: Promotions, leavers, new jobs May 2012
  23. "No. 61793". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 December 2016. p. 26901.
  24. "Army Commands" (PDF). Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  25. "No. 62610". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 April 2019. p. 6432.
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