Under the original announcement, the Light Division would have remained essentially unchanged, with the exception of the Light Infantry gaining a new battalion through the amalgamation of two other regiments, and both gaining a reserve battalion from within the Territorial Army (TA) as it was then called.

[5] The 1st Battalion undertook a tour in Afghanistan between October 2008 and April 2009, ground holding and mentoring the Afghan National Army in Helmand Province.

[5] B and R Company, 4th Battalion, the Rifles provided reinforcement cover for the elections in Afghanistan and took part in Operation Panther's Claw in the Summer of 2009.

[25] The central Band of The Rifles are based at Sir John Moore Barracks in Winchester.

The Waterloo Band has performed at events across the UK and the world such as the Basel Tattoo in 2014.

The main difference between this ceremony and the regular Beating Retreat is that this is performed by the bugle bands of The Rifles, as well as the former of the bands of the Britain's Light Division, rather than using drums, as is the case with other infantry regiments.

This traditional ceremony (which represents the sounding of Sunset or Retreat in the British Army) has been done on 31 May and 1 June on Horse Guards Parade as recently as 1993 and 2016.