The brigade was withdrawn from Trieste in October 1954. It later moved to Kenya. In 1960, as the 24th Infantry Brigade Group, the brigade's commander,
Brigadier D.G. Horsford, was rushed from
Kenya to
Kuwait to take command of the British land forces assembled to dissuade President Kassem of
Iraq from invading the country (
Operation Vantage). On 12 December 1963 Kenya gained its independence. While 1st Battalion,
Gordon Highlanders at Gilgil, were in the process of relocating to
Redford Barracks Colinton, Edinburgh, having sent their advance party ahead, trouble started to brew in the newly-independent East African armies. Thus 24th Brigade was reduced to two battalions: 2nd Battalion,
Scots Guards and 1st Battalion,
Staffordshire Regiment, both at
Kahawa, plus 3rd Regiment,
Royal Horse Artillery and the remnants of the Gordons when the alerts started coming. The brigade was involved in putting the indigenous army mutinies which sprang up in
Zanzibar,
Tanzania, in the
Uganda Army, and
Kenya itself in January 1964. Brigade Headquarters left Kenya for
Aden at the end of October 1964, and stayed there until the final British evacuation of Aden in November 1967. On its return home it joined
3rd Infantry Division in 1968 as part of
Army Strategic Command and was based at
Crownhill Fort in Plymouth. The brigade arrived in
Northern Ireland at the start of
The Troubles in mid-1969 and was back again in June 1970. The brigade was soon afterward reorganised as the 24th Airportable Brigade at
Streatlam Camp,
Barnard Castle,
County Durham. At this time the brigade headquarters consisted of elements from various units. The brigade became the only Regular brigade in the reorganized
2nd Infantry Division, stationed in the north, after the army reorganization which implemented the findings of John Nott's
1981 Defence White Paper. Later that decade, after the successful trial conversion of
6th Armoured Brigade to 6th Airmobile Brigade, it was decided to change over 24th Brigade into a permanent airmobile anti-tank formation. Its war role became the rapid barring and blocking of any
Soviet breakthrough of
I (BR) Corps defences in Germany. In 1990 several
Members of Parliament described the brigade as "no more mobile than a bicycle battalion", due to a lack of available helicopters. 1st Battalion the
Royal Anglian Regiment pioneered this new airmobile role and served with
UNPROFOR in
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995, as part of the '
Rapid Reaction Force'.
1989 Structure • Headquarters, 24th Airmobile Brigade at
Catterick Garrison • 24 Airmobile Brigade Headquarters & Signal Squadron, Royal Corps of Signals, at Catterick Garrison (Airmobile Infantry, 42 x
MILAN Anti-Tank Missile Launchers) • 586 Signal Troop (Airmobile), Royal Corps of Signals • Band of the Green Howards (Small Infantry Band) •
Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, at Bourlon Barracks, Catterick Garrison (Airmobile Infantry, 42 x MILAN Anti-Tank Missile Launchers) • Band of the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire (Small Infantry Band) (18 x
FH70 155mm field howitzers) [to 1st Artillery Brigade] (36 x
Towed Rapiers and 12 x Blindfire Radar) •
9 Regiment Army Air Corps, at
Alanbrooke Barracks,
Topcliffe) • 15 Field Workshop REME Advance Workshop Detachment (AWD) of Corps of Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers {{Cite web|title=REME Field Force|url=http://www.REME • 24th (Airmobile) Field Ambulance,
Royal Army Medical Corps, in Catterick Garrison ==Notes==