1970s, the UK had to reconcile its decreased resources with its commitments, as well as the increased threat from the Soviet Union. The 1975 Mason Review, a government white paper, outlined a new defence policy and called for BAOR to be restructured that also included the elimination of the brigade level of command. This political change allowed the BAOR to restructure based on the concepts that the 1st Division had pioneered. The BAOR increased to four divisions as a result, for the first time since the end of the 1950s, with each composed of two armoured regiments, three mechanised infantry battalions, and two artillery regiments. On 1 April 1978, the 1st Division was redesignated as the 1st Armoured Division. The 7th and the 11th Armoured Brigades became defunct and were replaced by Task Force Alpha and Task Force Bravo. It was intended that the division could form up to five battlegroups with each commanded by either an armoured regiment or an infantry battalion. These groups were to be formed for a specific task and allocated the required forces needed. The reforms intended that the divisional commander would oversee these battlegroups, but early training showed this to be impractical. To compensate, the divisional headquarters was increased to 750 men (wartime strength) including two brigadiers, who would each command a flexible task force that would be formed by the general officer commanding (GOC). The task force approach allowed the GOC to tailor his forces to meet unforeseen events and execute the new developed doctrine. These task forces were not a reintroduction of a brigade command structure, and they had no administrative responsibilities. In structuring the division in this manner, it allowed a reduction of 700 men. David John Anthony Stone, a historian, commented the system was "designed to allow the commander maximum flexibility and [to] take precise account of the operational or tactical task to be achieved". In 1981 John Nott, the Secretary of State for Defence for the government elected in 1979, announced the 1981 Defence White Paper. It, like the Mason Review, aimed to balance the British military in line with the nation's financial resources. Nott's paper called for the BAOR to be restructured from four armoured divisions of two brigades, into a force of three divisions of three brigades. The intent was to save manpower and money, while only losing one divisional headquarters. The task force concept was dropped,