British Armed Forces,[b] also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces

Personnel[edit]

Welsh Guards Trooping the Colour
The British Armed Forces are a professional force with a strength of 153,290 UK Regulars and Gurkhas, 37,420 Volunteer Reserves and 8,170 "Other Personnel"^[d] as of 1 April 2021.^[4] This gives a total strength of 198,880 "UK Service Personnel".^[4][e] As a percentage breakdown of UK Service Personnel, 77.1% are UK Regulars and Gurkhas, 18.8% are Volunteer Reserves and 4.1% are composed of Other Personnel.^[4] In addition, all ex-Regular personnel retain a "statutory liability for service" and are liable to be recalled (under Section 52 of the Reserve Forces Act (RFA) 1996) for duty during wartime, which is known as the Regular Reserve. MoD publications since April 2013 no longer report the entire strength of the Regular Reserve, instead they only give a figure for Regular Reserves who serve under a fixed-term reserve contract. These contracts are similar in nature to those of the Volunteer Reserve.^[76] As of 1 April 2015, Regular Reserves serving under a fixed-term contract numbered 44,600 personnel.^[77]
The distribution of personnel between the services and categories of service on 1 April 2021 was as follows:^[4]

Service	Regular	Volunteer Reserve	Other Personnel	Total
Navy	33,850	4,080	2,480	40,400
Army	86,240	30,040	4,380	120,660
Air Force	33,200	3,300	1,310