Army 2020 structures: Royal Military Police and Security Assistance Group

Royal Military Police

Under Army 2020, the Royal Military Police is being reorganized and restructured to a streamlined ORBAT which introduces a 1-star, brigade HQ (1^st Military Police Brigade) controlling 3 military police regiments, a Special Investigation Branch regiment and a Specialist Operations Unit Regiment.

The new structure is obtained by disbanding 5^th Regiment RMP; by bringing back to the UK the 1^st Regiment RMP from Germany; disbanding a number of companies and resubordinating several others to form homogeneous, larger integrated regiments all formed by 2 regular and 1 reserve companies. The Specialist Operations Unit regiment is a new formation to stand up in Longmoor to group together under a unified command a number of specialist formations: the Close Protection Unit that provides VVIP escorts, the Service Police Crime Bureau and the Operational Support Unit.

The official summary of the changes to the RMP, MPS and MPGS under Army 2020 reports:

For the RMP, Army 2020 will result in:

• the creation of the 1^st Military Police Brigade (1 MP Bde) consisting of an optimized 1 star Headquarters, shaped from the existing HQ PM(A) allowing PM(A) to exercise command more effectively;

• three identically structured RMP Regiments (1^st, 3^rd and 4^th Regiments) fully integrated to maximise the utility of the Provost Reserves with fewer, but larger and more capable Regular and Reserve Provost Companies and larger Regimental Headquarters;

• an integrated RMP SIB Regiment with a small RMP SIB Reserve element and with a new deployable capability to meet the requirement of contingency; and

• a new RMP Specialist Operations Unit, which groups existing, but disparate, specialised capabilities (the Service Police Crime Bureau (SPCB), the Close Protection Unit (CPU) and the Operational Support Unit (OSU)), and allows for the appropriate depth of command so that the delivery of scarce and highly skilled niche specialist capabilities, such as Cyber-Crime and covert policing, can be better managed while also interacting in the national policing landscape at home.

For the MPS, Army 2020 means:

• an increased Regular MPS capability to number 191 personnel (up from 106 personnel) together with an enduring Reserve component;

• in future Tier-1 Service Custody Facilities (SCF) in Garrisons will be manned by MPS, along with the Tier-2 The Military Corrective Training Centre (MCTC). The aim is to professionalise and optimise Firm Base custody thereby increasing surety; and

• an enlarged MPS better able to meet future contingency capability by drawing across the whole MPS structure to deploy personnel to man Tier-3 Operational Facilities.

The Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS)was not included in the Army 2020 process, much work continues in parallel at HQ PM(A) as a number of Military sites are closed, security levels are reviewed and new bases are opened. Inevitably this will lead to some re-complimenting of MPGS personnel. However the significant contribution made by the MPGS to the Armed Services is recognised and appreciated across Defence and I am certain that this capability will continue to grow.

Changes to the RMP structure have begun and are being implemented, and more visible changes will take place in the coming months as 1^st RMP Regiment HQ moves out of Germany and into Catterick in December.

111 Provost Company, part of 1^st RMP Regiment, has already been disbanded as part of the reductions of the british presence in Germany. 114 Provost Company will also disband, while 110 Provost Company will transfer from Germany to Leuchars during 2015.

Once the transfers and disbandments are completed, 1^st Regiment RMP will have taken command of 150 Provost Company (transferring from 3^rd Regiment RMP during 2015) and of the 243 (Reserve) Provost Company.

The HQ of the Military Police brigade will be based in Andover, and is planned to stand up on 1^st December 2014. The head of the brigade will be the Provost Marshal (Army), and to preserve investigative independence of the police, OPCON will be in the hands of the Chief of General Staff. The brigade will be under the tactical command of Force Troops Command for non-investigative tasks.

The end state of the RMP regiments is as follows:

1^st Regiment RMP (Catterick)

150 Provost Coy (Catterick)

110 Provost Company (last in Germany, will move into Leuchars)

243 Provost Company (Reserve) [includes 2 Platoon in Lisburn]

3^rd Regiment RMP (Bulford)

158 Provost Company (Bulford)

174 Provost Company – Donnington

116 Provost Company (Reserve)

4^th Regiment RMP (Aldershot)

156 Provost Company (Air Assault) (Colchester)  [comes into the regiment 1^st December 2014]

160 Provost Company (Aldershot)

253 Provost Company (Reserve)

156 Provost Company is currently independent as it is the only air assault RMP unit, and is assigned directly to 16 Air Assault Brigade. This independence will formally end on 1^st December this year, when the company resubordinates under 4^th Regiment RMP.

The Provost Companies are working to a renewed three platoons structure, particularly important in the case of 156 Provost Company as it supports the constant generation of one platoon at High Readiness and air assault ready, to be attached to the Air Assault Task Force. Each RMP company has one “operations” platoon supporting the parent brigade, one platoon engaged in policing the assigned area of the UK and the garrison, and one platoon in training. The three platoons rotate across all three roles.

For 156 Provost Company, the operations platoon is a formation of 28 men held at High Readiness in support of the Air Assault Task Force generated by 16 Air Assault Brigade.

The one exception is the Royal Marines Police Troop, which has links to the RMP but remains an integral part of 30 Commando IX. The Troop is 38 strong, and has to generate police capability for the Royal Marines battlegroup at readiness.

The Special Investigation Branch Regiment includes 5 Investigation companies covering the whole of the UK, with Investigation sections distributed all over the territory and into the main garrisons. It is not yet clear if the number of companies will change, but the force will integrate 83, 84 and 85 SIB Sections, made up of reservists.

The brigade also includes the Military Provost Staff Regiment, including the Military Corrective Training Centre (in Colchester) and the regional Service Custody Facilities.  

No change has been announced so far for the Defence College of Policing and Guarding (DCPG) at Southwick Park, which delivers training for the police branches of all three the services. 

Security Assistance Group

The SAG is being formed at Denison Barracks, Hermitage, as a 1-star command bringing coherence to the management of information and media activities and Stabilisation Support Capabilities of the Army. It should indeed have officially formed on 1^st September. The HQ comprises 16 officers, 16 SNCO and 9 other ranks, and controls:

-          Media Operations Group

-          Security and Capability Building Team

-          15 Psychological Operations Group (15 POG)

-          Military Stabilisation Support Group (MSSG)

The MSSG numbers 20 officers and 40 ORs and has been moved into Hermitage. The 15 POG is expected to move into new infrastructure in the barracks during 2016, but the plan for the building and upgrading of the infrastructure for the group hasn’t yet been finalized.

In the future, the Defence Cultural Specialisation Unit (DCSU) and the Security Group Military Intelligence are expected to move into Hermitage as well. The barracks are also planned to house 73 Military Intelligence Company and the Land Intelligance Fusion Centre.

Hermitage, up to this summer, used to be the home base of 42 (Geographic) Engineer Regiment, but this regiment has now completed its move to new infrastructure in the Joint Forces base Wyton. Hermitage for the moment remains the base of the Royal School of Military Survey, but a plan has been prepared to move the school to Wyton as well, and indeed to complete the migration of the whole Defence Geographic Centre to new infrastructure in the Joint Forces base. The move of the school is unlikely to happen before the summer of 2017 in order not to disrupt training, and the DGC transfer will only be completed by around 2018. 

The evolving budget situation: GEOINTELLIGENCE improvements

1: Of aircraft carriers and OPVs
2: Land Forces

3: Helicopters

4: Force Structure 

5: Reversing bad decisions 

6: Army programs on the (slow) move 

7: Capabilities in the air  

One rare, if not unique case of capability that is being genuinely preserved (if not expanded) in numbers and also expanded in quality, is the little known Field Deployable Geointelligence capability of the Army. It certainly doesn't rank among the most well known, nor among the most celebrated capabilities, but teams from 42 Royal Engineers regiment (Geographic) will actually be found pretty much always supporting any kind of deployment, operation or force at readiness, from the Lead Commando battlegroup to the Airborne Task Force, from Operation Telic to the Olympic Games. 

One key factor of any operation is, in fact, knowing the environment in the highest possible detail, so that collecting data and build multiple layers of information about the area of operations is absolutely vital. The GEOINT capability of the British Army has significantly improved in recent years with the introduction of new equipment in support of operations in Afghanistan, and a complete renewal of the kit is ongoing under the Field Deployable GEOINT program, part of the wider Project PICASSO which provides strategic to tactical level mapping and digital geographic information and imagery derived intelligence to UK forces.

Notable UORs delivered in recent years include GEOSYS, a deployable computer system made up by more than 100 systems, each able to process up to four terrabytes of mapping, geographic information and intelligence data individually and substantially more when additional network storage is added. These computer systems, contained in characteristics green boxes, are meant to be used as standalone systems, or networked ones. The GEOSYS system is employed to collect, analyse and store intelligence data, from photographic images and digital maps to stereo enabled 3D imagery. The information is then processed and used to inform mission planning, either with electronic presentation or in hard copy, produced with printers procured as part of the UOR, along with a number of 14ft containers fitted with internal storage space and work surfaces. 

GEOSYS was sourced from Raytheon Systems UK, while the containers were made by G3. 

The other and more important UOR is DATAMAN, which uses COTS technology to deliver a powerful server system that can be accessed by troops in the field via ruggerized laptops. The product offered by DATAMAN to the soldiers is known as GeoViewer, a military software which resembles the common Google Maps but which offers access to between 300 and 350 different layers of information about the terrain. Any kind of useful information will be accessible, including data about known IED placements in the area, pattern of life information, and simple but highly relevant environment data. An overview of the DATAMAN system and its impact on operations is available in Angus Batey's weblog and archive.

At its simplest level, Dataman supplies a detailed map to its connected users. The map is not moved around from computer to computer, but held on the server: connected users access information tagged to the map, thus minimizing bandwidth requirements. Dataman allows this rich intelligence picture to be shared laterally, permitting any officer conducting an operation in a given area to better understand the changing nature of the space around them.

Information is added to the system from a variety of sources (including on-the-ground troop reports, signals and communication intelligence, open-source intelligence such as news reports, overhead imagery from aerial platforms, etc.) and validated by GEOINT specialists from JAGO (JointAeronautical and Geospatial Organization).  It is tagged to a specific location, permitting the operational units to "drill down" into the layers of data and learn about what has happened there over a period of time. In this way, an officer planning a convoy could, for example, decide which roads to avoid by looking at locations of past IED emplacements, or assess the likelihood of ambushes by checking possible routes for recent insurgent activity.

The move to integrate different data types in a single accessible system has been driven both by the determination in the British military to end the unintended stovepiping of GEOINT, which has seen the geographical element of military intelligence effectively separated from other sources of battlespace information, and by the desire of soldiers who have come of age in a net-centric era to use the consumer technologies they are familiar with in their work environment. Traditionally a very specialised discipline, GEOINT is being opened up to the non-specialist user. The results benefit everyone.
 

 

DATAMAN, first deployed in 2010, reaches into other databases covering, for instance: Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices, ISTAR, medical facilities, cross-country movements and patrol tracks, offering unprecedented situational awareness about the terrain to the officers.


These systems complement and enhance older equipment which has been around for years: TACISYS and TACIPRINT. The first item was delivered by ULTRA Electronics in 1997, although an early iterations based on the system prototypes was used to support operations in Bosnia in 1995. TACISYS (Tactical Information System) is a mobile computer system providing various geographic products, and is housed in a container mounted on a 4 Tonne Daf truck. The system is mobile to support manoeuvre formations in the field, to collect and process GEOINT and to make it available in support of planning. 11 such systems were originally procured and have been in use ever since, including in Afghanistan. 
TACIPRINT (Tactical Printing System) is a mobile printing press housed in a container mounted on an 8 Tonne Bedford, used to produce maps rich with overlaid information. Separately, a fleet of 4 tonne trucks were equipped as MAPSP (MAP Supply Point) and designed to carry and distribute up to 72.000 maps. 
 
This equipment is now being replaced with new, more modern systems which build on the success of the UOR equipment recently introduced and, of course, of modern electronics and printers. 
The Geographic regiment is receiving a one for one replacement for TACISYS with the new TIGAS (Tactical Information and Geospatial Analysi) vehicle, a DURO II 6x6 fitted with a specialized shelter produced by Marshall Land Systems to serve as the working environment for two GEOINT specialists and their equipment, including servers, computers and plotter. 
TIGAS will deploy on the field to collect and analyse GEOINT data, which can then be shared via network and/or be used to produce hard copy material and maps. These will no longer be produced by the old TACIPRINT, but will be made and distributed by the new Tactical Map Dissemination Points (TMDP), 2-man laboratories housed in 20-ft containers mounted on 15T MAN SV trucks. 

TIGAS and TMDP overview

TIGAS and TMDP have been delivered by Team SOCRATES, a group of companies lead by Lockheed Martin and comprising Marshall Specialist Vehicles; SCISYS; Actica Consulting (security and communications); KNK; Polaris Consulting and Safety Assurance Services.
11 TIGAS and 3 TMDPs have been delivered, and the MOD has now awarded the order for FDG Tranche 2A, which will deliver further TMDPs, possibly more TIGAS vehicles, and equipment to set up a Forward Map Distribution Point, which should be a large deployable facility meant for the higher levels of command (Division and above). A Forward Map Distribution Point, equipped with older technology, was set up in Kuwait during Operation Telic, for example.  

The TIGAS vehicle comes with a tent that can be used to exand the working and living space - photo Marshall Land Systems

The new Field Deployable GEOINT has hit IOC in August 2013 and should have achieved FOC in October 2013. The kit developed for FDG is fully UK proprietary and is said to have gained the interest of several countries, so that export orders in the near future are a distinct possibility. 
The UK modernized GEOINT capability sits within a collaborative project called Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence (ASG), in which the british armed forces partner with USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to collect, analyze and share relevant intelligence. 

This equipment is employed by 42 Royal Engineers regiment (Geographic). The regiment is based in Hermitage but is due to transfer into Roy Lines, a new structure built on RAF Wyton. 14 Field Squadron, part of the regiment, has been based in Germany to support BAOR for some 68 years: it has lowered its flag for the last time on German soil on the 18th of July 2013, at a ceremony in Ayrshire Barracks, Mönchengladbach. The squadron moved back to the UK in the summer 2013, directly into the new building at Wyton, and will be followed there by the rest of the regiment by September 2014.

The regiment also includes the squadrons 13 and 16, plus the 135 Reserve squadron. 

Moving to Wyton is part of the riorganization which sees the regiment sit beneath the 1-Star Command called Joint Force Intelligence Group (JFIG). This Command sits under the headline ‘Defence Intelligence’ and is itself part of the new Joint Forces Command (JFC) – headed up by a 4-Star Officer. RAF Wyton has been expanded and new buildings have been built ("Pathfinder" and the "Roy Lines", the new home for 42 Engineer Regiment) under Project PRIDE, as part of the riorganisation. 

 

TIGAS on mobility trials

Being under Joint Forces Command, 42 Engineer will be the only unit of sappers not directly under the command of 8th Engineer Brigade. The regiment has since decided to adopt the common formation flash designed for JFC.  

Joint Forces Command Flash