The UK has for many decades relied upon volunteers rather than conscripts to complement its Armed Forces, supplemented by a system of Volunteer Reserves. The 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) saw the Reserves, hitherto retained largely for a struggle for national survival, change in structure to become an integral part of the UK’s military capability for operations at home and overseas and change from a large but little used Reserve to a more effective one that is frequently used.
