1st Reconnaissance Brigade (United Kingdom) on:
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The 1st Reconnaissance Brigade was a short-lived specialist formation of the British Army which administered the formation reconnaissance regiments not attached to a division or brigade, and was disbanded sometime between 2005 and 2006.
Screening Force
Sometime after the publishing of the 1981 Defence White Paper "The Way Forward", the Screening Force (Corps Border Surveillance Force) was formed as an ad hoc brigade withinI (British) Corps
I Corps ("First Corps") was an army corps in existence as an active formation in the British Army for most of the 80 years from its creation in the First World War until the end of the Cold War, longer than any other corps. It had a short-lived ...
. Brigadier Royal Armoured Corps, British Army of the Rhine would become 'Commander Screening Force' on mobilisation.Alterfritz, p. 38.
The force's objective, if mobilised, was to hold off a soviet frontal invasion for as long as possible until the 1st and 4th Armoured Divisions could be moved into position. If mobilised, the brigade would control al the units of the division in the reconnaissance role and providing a reconnaissance/screening force. On mobilisation, the force would have consisted:
* Brigadier, I (BR) Corps Royal Armoured Corps (Commander Screening Force)
** Queen's Dragoon Guards, at Northampton Barracks, Wolfenbüttel (under command of 1st Armoured Division during peacetime)
** 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers
The 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was formed by the amalgamation of the 16th The Queen's Lancers and the 5th Royal Irish Lancers in 1922. The reason for the uniquely atypical regimental title (wit ...
, Harewood Barracks, Herford (under command of 4th Armoured Division during peacetime)
** No. 664 Squadron, Army Air Corps, at Saint George's Barracks, Minden (under command of Commander Aviation BAOR during peacetime)
In 1992 following the disbandment of the British Army of the Rhine, the force HQ was disbanded.
Reconnaissance Brigade
The 1st Reconnaissance Brigade was established on 1 April 1997. The brigade might have been assigned to HQAllied Rapid Reaction Corps
The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization High Readiness Force (Land) Headquarters ready for deployment worldwide.
History
The ARRC was created on 1 October 1992 in Bielefeld based on the former I (Britis ...
. Following the 2003 reorganisation of the Army under 'LANDmark', HQ Theatre Troops was formed to oversee the specialist brigades of the army. The brigade soon joined HQ Theatre Troops, which it would remain under until disbanding in 2005-06, following the Future Army Structure programme.Mackinlay, p. 57.
Footnotes
References
* Ministry of Defence, ''Staff Officer's Handbook Number 71038, D/DGD&D/18/35/54'', 1999. * James Tanner, ''The British Army since 2000'', 2014 Osprey Publishing, Oxford, United Kingdom. . *{{Cite book, last=Mackinlay, first=Gordon Angus, title="A Moment in Time": The British Army at a moment in time - 1 July 2007: A look at and from it of the Makeup of the Regular and Territorial Army, publisher=Self publish, year=2007 Brigades of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1997