Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in 1990 after the end of the Cold War.
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 British Army in Germany.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in 1989, a Soviet invasion of Western Europe no longer seemed likely. While the restructuring was criticised by several British politicians, it was an exercise mirrored by governments in almost every major Western military power: the so-called peace dividend.
Total manpower was cut by approximately 18 per cent to around 255,000 (120,000 army; 60,000 navy; 75,000 air force).
Other casualties of the restructuring were the UK's nuclear civil defence organisations, the 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.
Halving the troop strength in Germany by replacing the British Army of the Rhine with British Forces Germany in 1994.
Several British Army regiments amalgamated:
The Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) - one battalion
The Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons)
The Gordon Highlanders
The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires) - two battalions
The Queen's Regiment
The Royal Hampshire Regiment
The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment - one battalion
The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment
The Gloucestershire Regiment
The Royal Gurkha Rifles - 3 battalions (later reduced to two)
2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles
6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles
7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles
10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles
The Royal Irish Regiment (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd, 87th and Ulster Defence Regiment) - two general service battalions (later reduced to one)
The Royal Irish Rangers (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd and 87th)
The Ulster Defence Regiment
In addition, seven regiments each lost a battalion:
Grenadier Guards
Coldstream Guards
Scots Guards
The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
The Royal Anglian Regiment
The Light Infantry
The Royal Green Jackets
The amalgamation of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers into the Royal Scots Borderers (one battalion) and the Cheshire Regiment and Staffordshire Regiment into the Cheshire and Staffordshire Regiment (one battalion) was suspended in 1994.
The Household Cavalry Regiment (each retained regimental identity)
The Life Guards
The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons)
The King's Royal Hussars
The Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)
14th/20th King's Hussars
The Light Dragoons
13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own)
15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars
The Queen's Royal Hussars (Queen's Own and Royal Irish)
The Queen's Own Hussars
The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars
The Queen's Royal Lancers
16th/5th Queen's Royal Lancers
17th/21st Lancers
The Royal Dragoon Guards
4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards
5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
1st Royal Tank Regiment
1st Royal Tank Regiment
4th Royal Tank Regiment
2nd Royal Tank Regiment
2nd Royal Tank Regiment
3rd Royal Tank Regiment
Royal Logistic Corps
Royal Corps of Transport
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
Royal Pioneer Corps
Army Catering Corps
Postal and Courier Service, Royal Engineers
Adjutant General's Corps
Royal Army Educational Corps
Royal Army Pay Corps
Women's Royal Army Corps
Army Legal Corps
Corps of Royal Military Police
Military Provost Staff Corps
Closing RAF Wildenrath in April 1992 and RAF Gutersloh in March 1993, halving the number of RAF bases in Germany.
Withdrawing the F-4 Phantom II squadrons.
Cancelling the Brimstone air-to-surface missile project (later restarted).
A small reduction in Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft.
Cutting the number of frigates and destroyers from around 50 to 40.
A dramatisation of the effects that Options for Change had on the ordinary men and women serving in the armed forces came in the ITV series Soldier Soldier. The fictional infantry regiment portrayed in the series, the King's Fusiliers, was one of those selected for amalgamation. It showed the whole process of negotiation over traditions, embellishments, etc. between the two regiments involved, and the uncertainty that many of those serving felt for their jobs in the light of two separate battalions merging into one, with the resulting loss of manpower.