after the fall of the berlin wall the united kingdom began to reduce the size of its armed forced under the working title of options for change. army strength was to be reduced from 160,000 to 110,000; the infantry to reduce from 55 battalions to 38. the goc saw this as a perfect opportunity to streamline the udr and also remove some of the more "intractable problems" with regards to image and career prospects. in a revolutionary plan he decided to merge the udr with the royal irish rangers; incorporating part-time soldiers into the regular army for the first time in history. the hope of the british army's commander was that the process of amalgamation with the rangers, coupled with the change of name, would be a fresh start for what he says was a "discredited udr". the rangers recruited from the south of ireland, including many catholics, and this would aid the process.