British Armed Forces Commander-in-chief is the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, to whom members of the forces swear allegiance. The UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the British Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, as required by the Bill of Rights 1689. The Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines among with all other forces do not require this act. The armed forces are managed by the Defence Council of the Ministry of Defence, headed by the Secretary of State for Defence. The United Kingdom is one of five recognised nuclear powers, is
Structure of the British Armed Forces in 1989 Structure of the British Armed Forces in 1989 At the end of the Cold War in 1989 the British Armed Forces structure was as follows: In 1989 the British Armed Forces had a peacetime strength of 311,600 men and defense expenditures were 4.09% of GDP. Joint establishments were tri-service units providing services to all three branches of the British Armed Forces/ The Defence Operations Executive, led by the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments) and including the Assistant Chiefs of the Naval, General, and Air Staffs, supervised the Joint Operations Centre which in turn passed orders to the forces