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BritishArmed Forces
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thearmed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the
British Armed Forces
or
Her Majesty'sArmed Forces
, sometimes legally the
armed forces of the Crown
. TheirCommander-in-Chief istheBritish monarch,Queen Elizabeth II and they are managed by the Defence Council of theMinistry of
Defence.The BritishArmed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories,
promotingBritain's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They areactive and regular participants in NATO and other coalition operations.
History
British militaryhistoryislong, complex and greatly influential in world history, especially sincethe
17th Century. Important conflicts in which theBritish took partinclude the Seven Years' War and the
Napoleonic Wars of the 18th Century/early19th Century, theCrimean Warof the mid 19th Century, and
theFirst and Second World Wars of the20th Century. The British Empire, which reached its apogee inthe1920s, was the largest empire in history; a quarter of the world's population were subjects of theBritishCrown and it controlled a quarter of the world's total land area. Since the end of the SecondWorld War, British forces have continued to be very active and bases remain spread out across the globe
in places such as Northern Ireland,Cyprus, Germany, Gibraltar, Brunei and the Falkland Islands.
The current structure of defence management in the United Kingdom was set in place in 1964 when themodern dayMinistry of Defence (MoD) was created (an earlier form had existed since 1940).The MoD
assumed the roles of theAdmiralty, theWar Office and the Air Ministry.
Current strength
armed forces in the World. Its globalpower projection capabilities are deemed second only to those of theUnited States Military. The UK has the 2nd to 4th highest military expenditure in the world(depending on source), despite only having the 28th highest number of troops. It is also the secondlargest spender on military science, engineering and technology. Despite Britain's wide rangingcapabilities, recent defence policy has a stated assumption that any large operation would be undertakenas part of a coalition. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (
Granby
,
Desert Fox
and
Telic
) may all be
taken as precedent - indeed the last large scale military action in which the British armed forces foughtalone was the Falklands War of 1982.TheRoyal Navy is the second largest navy in the world in terms of gross tonnage, with 90
commissioned ships. TheNaval Service (which comprises the Royal Navy andRoyal Marines)had a
strength of 35,470 in July 2006 and is charged with custody of the United Kingdom's independentstrategicnuclear deterrent consisting of four Trident missile submarines, while the Royal Marinesprovide commando units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyondthe NATO area.TheBritish Army had a reported strength of 100,010 in July 2006 and as of 2006 9.0% of the regularArmed Forces were women. TheRoyal Air Force had a strength of 45,210. This puts the total number of
regular Armed Forces personnel at 180,690 (not including civilians). This number is supported by
reserve forces, including over 35,000 from the Territorial Army. The total number of serving personnel,including reserve forces, is therefore in the region of 225,000 (taking into account Navy, Marines andAir Force reserves).
Branches
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