The Rifles

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the British rock band of the same name, see The Rifles (Band) , for further meanings see Rifles .

Beret badge of the Rifles

The Rifles (short name: RIFLES) are an infantry regiment of the British Army that has existed since 2007 and was created through the amalgamation of several earlier regiments of light infantry . It currently consists of five active and three reserve battalions . Since its inception, the regiment has been involved in the occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan .

organization

The regiment consists of five active battalions and three battalions of the Army Reserve , each of which is trained and equipped for a specific operational role:

• 1st Battalion The Rifles (1 RIFLES, German: 1st The Rifles -Bataillon): light infantry; Subordinated to the 7th Infantry Brigade since 2019 . Barracked in the Beachley Barracks near Chepstow , Gloucestershire . To be relocated to MOD St Athan in 2027 .
• 2nd Battalion The Rifles (2 RIFLES): light infantry, currently under the 38th (Irish) Brigade . Barracked in the Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn , Northern Ireland.
• 3rd Battalion The Rifles (3 RIFLES): light mechanized infantry; currently under the 51st Infantry Brigade . Barracked in the Dreghorn Barracks, Edinburgh , Scotland. Is to be subordinated to the 1st Armored Infantry Brigade (then 1st Strike Brigade ) in 2021, relocated to the Catterick Garrison (garrison south of Richmond ) and equipped with Mechanized Infantry Vehicle .
• 4th Battalion The Rifles (4 RIFLES): Specialized infantry battalion (training of foreign forces) in the Specialized Infantry Group . Barracked in the New Normandy Barracks, Aldershot .
• 5th Battalion The Rifles (5 RIFLES): (Heavy) Mechanized Infantry ( Warrior AFV ); subordinated to the 20th Armored Brigade . In Bulford , Wiltshire barracks.
• 6th Battalion The Rifles (6 RIFLES): light infantry; Army Reserve, County Battalion for South West England and the Midlands . Headquarters in the Wyvern Barracks, Exeter . Subordinated to the 7th Infantry Brigade paired with 1 RIFLES .
• 7th Battalion The Rifles (7 RIFLES): light infantry; Army Reserve, County Battalion for Southern England and Greater London. Headquarters at Brock Barracks, Reading . Subordinated to the 20th Armored Brigade paired with 5 RIFLES .
• 8th Battalion The Rifles (8 RIFLES): light infantry; Army Reserve, County Battalion for Durham , Yorkshire , Shropshire and Birmingham . Headquarters in Bishop Auckland . Subordinated to the 51st Infantry Brigade paired with 3 RIFLES .

Under the Army 2020 armed forces concept , the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions belong to the Adaptable Force, and the 4th and 5th Battalions to the Reaction Force .

There are also two troops that bear the Rifle badge, but are subordinate to other regiments:

• Durham (The Rifles) Company, 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
• Y (RIFLES) Platoon, 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Honorary colonel (Colonel-in-chief) of the regiment has been Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall since 2020 , the individual battalions also have Royal Colonels from the ranks of the royal family .

history

As part of the restructuring of the British Army on the basis of the Defense White Paper Delivering Security in a Changing World (2003), the regiment was formed at the beginning of 2007 from the four regiments of the Light Division :

• Royal Green Jackets
• The Light Infantry
• Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry
• Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry

The following battalions were set up:

• 1 RIFLES - from the only battalions of the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry
  • subordinated to the 3rd Commando Brigade , later the 160th Infantry Brigade
• 2 RIFLES - from the previous 1st Battalion, Royal Green Jackets
  • subordinated to the 19th Light Brigade
• 3 RIFLES - from the previous 2nd Battalion, The Light Infantry
  • subordinated to the 38th (Irish) Brigade
• 4 RIFLES - from the previous 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets
• 5 RIFLES - from the previous 1st Battalion, The Light Infantry

The following TA battalions were set up from units of the Territorial Army (TA, German Reserve Army ):

• 6 RIFLES - from the Rifle Volunteers
• 7 RIFLES - from the Royal Rifle Volunteers (minus one company) and two Royal Green Jackets companies subordinate to the London Regiment .

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions were still involved in heavy fighting in Iraq in 2007 . The 1st Battalion was deployed in Afghanistan in the Helmand Province for six months in 2008 and 2009 . The 5th Battalion was one of the last British military units in the British military withdrawal from Iraq in May 2009. Since the summer of 2009, several battalions of the regiment were rotating in action in Afghanistan.

As part of the retrieval of the British units stationed in Germany , the 5th Battalion, which had been stationed in the Alanbrooke Barracks in Paderborn , moved to England in September 2016 .

At the end of 2016, the Minister of Defense announced the creation of another reserve battalion. On November 1st, 2017, 8 RIFLES were officially put into service.

In October 2017, the 4th Battalion, which had been subordinate to the 1st Armored Infantry Brigade as mechanized infantry (equipped with mastiffs ) , were deployed together with 1 SCOTS to form the Specialized Infantry Group . The main task of the Specialized Infantry Group, which is under the command of the 6th (United Kingdom) Division , is the education, training and advice of the military in other countries on the model of the US Army Security Force Assistance Brigades. After completing her training with them, she worked in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2018. As part of the conversion to specialized infantry battalions, these units also give up the majority of their teams.

Lines of tradition

1880	Childers Reforms 1881	Change of name in 1921	Defense White Paper 1957	Defense White Paper 1966	Customization options 1990	Security in a Changing World 2003
11th (North Devon) Regiment of Foot	The Devonshire Regiment		The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment			The Rifles
39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot	The Dorsetshire Regiment
54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot
13th (1st Somersetshire) (Prince Albert's Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot	Prince Albert's Light Infantry (Somersetshire Regiment)	The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's)	The Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry	The Light Infantry
32nd (Cornwall Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot	The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot
51st (2nd Yorkshire, West Riding, King's Own Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot	The King's Own Light Infantry (South Yorkshire Regiment)	King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
105th (Madras Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot
53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot	The King's Light Infantry (Shropshire Regiment)	The King's Shropshire Light Infantry
85th (Bucks Volunteers) (King's Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot
68th (Durham) (Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot	The Durham Light Infantry
106th (Bombay Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot
28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot	The Gloucestershire Regiment				The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment
61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot
49th (Hertfordshire) (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Regiment of Foot	Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Berkshire Regiment)	The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's)	The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire)
66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot
62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot	The Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment)	The Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's)
99th (Duke of Edinburgh's) Regiment of Foot
43rd (Monmouthshire Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot	The Oxfordshire Light Infantry renamed in 1908: The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry		1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd)	The Royal Green Jackets
52nd (Oxfordshire) (Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot
60th (King's Royal Rifle Corps) Regiment of Foot	The King's Royal Rifle Corps		2nd Green Jackets, The King's Royal Rifle Corps
Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)	The Prince Consort's Own (Rifle Brigade)		3rd Green Jackets, The Rifle Brigade

see also 95th Rifles

Web links

Commons : The Rifles  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Infantry: The Rifles. In: The British Army homepage. (English). 
• Rifles Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Written Statement: Strategic Defense and Security Review - Army: Written statement - HCWS367 . Hansard. December 15, 2016 .: "Specialized Infantry Battalions"
2. ^ Specialized Infantry Group . British Army.
3. ↑ Army 2020 Refine Structure . HM Armed Forces Review. 15th October 2019.
4. ↑ Jahara Matisek, Joshua Williamson: Limited Wars in the Periphery: The Dilemma of American Military Assistance . In: Expeditions with MCU Press . June 2020. doi : 10.36304 / ExpwMCUP.2020.03 .
5. ↑ Jahara Matisek, William Reno: Getting American Security Force Assistance Right: Political Context Matters . In: Joint Force Quarterly . 92, No. 1st quarter, 2019, pp. 65–73.
6. ^ Sian Grzeszczyk: EXCLUSIVE: Specialist British Soldiers' First Operational Deployment In Kuwait . In: Forces News , February 21, 2018. 
7. ↑ Amy Wiltshire: Duchess Of Cornwall Presents 4 RIFLES With Medals . In: Forces News , May 2, 2019. 
8. ^ Army: Written question - 194616 . Hansard. 22nd November 2018.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Childers Reform . In: The London Gazette , Government of the United Kingdom, July 1881, pp. 3300-3301. Retrieved October 27, 2016. 
10. ↑ Options for Change
11. ^ Delivering Security in a Changing World