1st Reconnaissance Brigade (United Kingdom)


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 in 2010.

History

The 1st Reconnaissance Brigade was formed sometime before 1999 to oversee the formation reconnaissance regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps not attached to a division or brigade while the similarly unattached artillery regiments come under either 1st Artillery Brigade or 7th Air Defence Brigade. Until the formation of HQ Theatre Troops, the brigade sat under operational command of the 1st Armoured Division during peacetime. If mobilised, the brigade would augment Reconnaissance Brigade, HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, and control the three armoured reconnaissance regiments of said division.
All of the formation reconnaissance regiments not attached to either 1st Armoured Division or 3rd Mechanised Division were grouped together under the administration of the 1st Reconnaissance Brigade, while the similarly unattached artillery regiments come under either 1st Artillery Brigade or 7th Air Defence Brigade.

Screening Force

Sometime after the publishing of the 1981 Defence White Paper "The Way Forward", the Screening Force was formed as an adhoc brigade within I Corps. Like the 1st Recce brigade, it was an administrative formation rather then an operational formation. 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 positiion. On mobilisation, the force would have consisted:
In 1992 following the disbandment of the British Army of the Rhine, the force HQ was disbanded.

Footnotes