CHACR COMMENTARY // DECEMBER 2025
BY: Major Laurence Thomson, Chief of the General Staff’s Visiting Fellow at RUSI
T
HIS CHACR Commentary explores the renaissance of light and airborne forces on the modern battlefield by considering the utility of the British Army’s 1st (United Kingdom) Division within the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), one of NATO’s two Strategic Reserve Corps (SRCs). To meet the Chief of the Defence Staff ’s mission, the Division needs “to be ready to deter, fight and win today and tomorrow”, so it must capitalise on its unique characteristics and advantages – principally its ability to seize fast-mover advantage and be first to the fight. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine heralded the advent of a new era in world geostrategic politics, described by Steve Covington
as “an era of confrontation in which Russia and its allies will seek to dismantle the American-led security system”. In response, at the Madrid Summit NATO endorsed a new Strategic Concept and pledged to always defend every inch of NATO territory. Against such ambition, the SRCs have been allocated four key tasks: restore NATO’s territorial integrity; cause strategic dilemmas; mitigate risks; and create defensive strong points. 1st (United Kingdom) Division has an important role to play in the delivery of each one. The Ukrainian conflict has demonstrated the continued utility of armour on the battlefield. However, ubiquitous lethality has levelled the playing field between light and airborne
and armoured forces. All areas of the battlefield are vulnerable to persistent surveillance and precision strike. Dispersal and concealment arguably contribute more to survivability than thickness of armour. As such, 1st (United Kingdom) Division is fast being equipped with relatively inexpensive attritable and consumable capabilities that are accentuating its inherent strengths. The question becomes, in this period of renaissance, how to build a light and airborne Division to ensure it can deliver the strategic advantage, operational choice and tactical flexibility required? – Major General RSJ Hedderwick, GOC 1st (UK) Division. INTRODUCTION Recent conflicts have fundamentally changed the
1 // REIMAGINING LIGHT FORCES // CHACR
presumption of assumed superiority of heavy forces over light forces on the modern battlefield. Whilst both capabilities remain strategically vital in the context of NATO’s deterrence vis a vis Russia, light forces are having a contemporary renaissance. The Alliance is strengthening its deterrence posture along its Eastern Flank Deterrence Line and the British Army is optimising and modernising to meet its commitments to it. The Strategic Defence Review 2025 states the “Army must modernise [its] two divisions and the corps HQ that it provides to NATO as one of the Alliance’s two SRCs” – Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (HQ ARRC). It assumes both divisions are to be
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REIMAGINING THE UTILITY OF THE UK’S LIGHT FORCES