Other changes included the 14th Intelligence Company renamed as the Special Reconnaissance Regiment.

This was to meet a demand for a special reconnaissance capability identified in the Strategic Defence Review: A New Chapter published in 2002 in response to the 2001 September 11 attacks.

[6] As an outcome of this review, on 1 September 2014, 21 and 23 SAS were removed from the UKSF order of battle[7] and placed with the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), under the command of 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade.

[10] In 2008, the rank of the DSF was upgraded from brigadier to major-general with the directorate becoming an independent, operational-level component command, alongside Land, Navy and Air elements in the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) and in the deployable Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ).

UKSF may operate in locations where the UK does not formally acknowledge a military presence.