Editing Options for Change (section)

{{Short description|1990 post–Cold War restructuring of the British Army}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}

'''Options for Change''' was a restructuring of the [[British Armed Forces]] in summer 1990 after the end of the [[Cold War]].<ref name="hansard2">{{cite hansard|title=Defence (Options for Change)|house=House of Commons|date=25 July 1990|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-07-25/Debate-1.html|column_start=468|column_end=486}}</ref>

Until this point, UK military strategy had been almost entirely focused on defending [[Western Europe]] against the [[Soviet Armed Forces]], with the [[Royal Marines]] in [[Scandinavia]], the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) in [[West Germany]] and over the [[North Sea]], the [[Royal Navy]] in the [[Norwegian Sea]] and [[North Atlantic]], and the [[BAOR#1945–1994|British Army in Germany]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Freedman|first=Lawrence|title=The Politics of British Defence, 1979–97|date=18 August 1999|publisher=Macmillan Press|isbn=0-333746-67-8}}</ref>

With the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|collapse of the Soviet Union]] and the [[Warsaw Pact]] occurring between 1989 and 1991, the threat of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe fell away. While the restructuring was criticised by several British politicians, it was an exercise mirrored by governments in almost every major Western military power, reflecting the so-called [[peace dividend]].<ref name="ClementsSchiff19992">{{cite book |last1=Clements |first1=Benedict J. |last2=Schiff |first2=Jerald Alan |last3=Debaere |first3=Peter |last4=Davoodi |first4=Hamid Reza |title=Military Spending, the Peace Dividend, and Fiscal Adjustment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dz5nWM7M2TIC&pg=PA3 |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] |date=1 July 1999 |isbn=978-1-4518-9700-5}}</ref>

Total manpower was cut by approximately 18 per cent to around 255,000 (120,000 army; 60,000 navy; 75,000 air force).<ref name="hansard2" />

Other casualties of the restructuring were the UK's nuclear civil defence organisations – the [[UKWMO|United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation]] and its field force, the [[Royal Observer Corps]] (a part-time volunteer branch of the RAF), both disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995.<ref>{{cite news |title=End of the Long Lookout |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12056017.End_of_the_long_lookout/ |newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]] |location=Glasgow |date=29 December 1995 |access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref>