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. 

Force Troops Command and Royal Engineers of Army 2020

The Army has produced a good, clear brochure showing the structure of the "new" Force Troops Command, which is more honestly describable as a restructured Theatre Troops command.

Force Troops Command Overview

The brochure is very clear in showing how units are assigned to the various brigades of the FTC, so i'll let you read it directly from the document. It is however worth noticinga few things: after a lot of speculation about the fate of the Self-Propelled Starstreak (Stormer HVM) air defence platforms, we can now say that the system looks like a big winner, not a loser.
Fears for the future of the system were generated by the news, dating back to 2009, that the Stormer vehicle would be withdrawn from service and sold. While it is true that several Stormer vehicles have been put up for sale, a sizeable force of modernized Stormer HVM remains very much in service and important. Under Army 2020, Stormer HVM will equip a total of five artillery batteries, of which three regular and two reserve.

As of now, 12 Regiment Royal Artillery has a couple of Stormer HVM batteries (9 (Plassey) Bty and 58 (Eyre's) Bty), and is apparently due to form a third battery. I've been trying to find out which colors will be assigned to the new battery, but at the moment i still don't have the answer.
Predictably, the three Stormer batteries are meant to support the three armoured infantry brigades of the Reaction Force. 
12 Regiment also maintains 12 (Minden) Bty employing the LML triple launcher. This battery has the task of generating air defence packages at very high readiness, notably to be assigned to 16 Air Assault Brigade.

106 Regiment Royal Artillery, in the Army Reserve, is to have two Stormer HVM batteries (295 and 457 Batteries) and a Lightweight Multiple Launcher (LML) capability in 265 Bty.

The document also finally clears up the position of 49 Bty Royal Artillery, which is confirmed as LEAPP formation, as passing under the command of Joint Ground Based Air Defence and as based in Thorney Island. It will however remain an independent battery, instead of being absorbed by 16 Regiment RA. 
Joint Ground Based Air Defence is under Air Command OPCON, but Force Troops Command will have a coordinating authority over the force.

Less operationally relevant, but still worth noticing, is that the badge for the Intelligence and Surveillance Brigade might not have been firmly chosen yet. In earlier Army 2020 documents produced by the Army, the new brigade was identified by the glorious badge of what in the past was Reconnaissance Corps. But in the whole FTC brochure, the Intelligence and Surveillance Brigade always appears without any badge. This might indicate that the Army is still thinking about it, on the way to the formation of the brigade, which will stand up on 1 September.

Will this be confirmed as the badge for 1 ISR Bde?

Moving to the Royal Engineers, an excellent graphic has been produced by the corps of Royal Engineers, showing the structure that the force will assume as part of Army 2020 restructuring:

SEE IMAGE IN FULL SIZE ON PINTREST

The graphic is clear and immensely useful, but it needs a couple of notes. Since it dates November 2013, it shows 24 Commando Engineer Regiment in red, denoting its uncertain future. It has now been announced that the regiment will not disband as earlier announced as part of Army 2020 cuts.

Another note regards again the use of color code. Despite being an official document, the graphic contains a couple of errors: 106 Field Squadron, in 32 Regt, is shown in black, denoting regular forces. It should be written in green, as it is actually a reserve squadron.
In 33 EOD Regiment there's a second mistake, exactly opposite: 821 Sqn is written in green, denoting reserves, but it is actually a regular squadron, comprising two Air Assault and two Commando EOD troops for the support of 16 Air Assault Brigade and 3rd Commando Brigade.

In the EOD regiments, including 11 Regiment EOD Royal Logistic Corps, much is changing, as Search and EOD functions are combined in the squadrons, and RE and RLC elements get mixed and integrated together. 821 Sqn has been the first mixed RLC and RE squadron, born out of a wider restructuring process that saw the disbandment of 49 EOD Sqn in July 2013.
According to a Royal Engineers report, 11 Regiment RLC is assuming the responsibility for the provision of Search support to Special Forces for UK Resilience and work is ongoing to give it a UK Military Aid to Civil Powers (MACP) Search capability as well.
33 EOD Regiment is primarily tasked with EOD support to the Reaction Force, while 101 EOD Regiment supports the Adaptable Force.

In the EOD area there are also promising news regarding the future of the TALISMAN Route Clearance system. I have to thank MikeW for dropping me a comment in which he linked me to the website of the 101 EOD Regiment association, which contains information about the future:

As a result of OP Herrick EOD deveopments in support of Afganistan it is envisaged that the 'Talisman Troop' concept for route enablement and IED search and destroy missions will be retained and further developed. It is thought that 101 and 33 Engineer Regiments will each operate four enhanced Talisman Troops.
Talisman currently comprises 5 key equipment elements: Buffalo clearance vehicle, Mastiff 2 command and control 'Protected Eyes', T-Hawk micro UAV system, Talon robotic vehicle and a High Mobility Engineer Excavator.
It is probable that Talisman will be enhanced further in the near future with one or two 'Terrier' vehicles, and a 'Husky' vehicle equipped with ground penetrating radar. 

This brief passage does not quite contain all the information i'd like, but it does give good hopes. The Royal Artillery seem set to retain the T-Hawk micro UAV. The purchase of the proven, capable Husky would provide better capability than the current PANAMA system, made up by a number of Land Rover Snatch converted into remotely-operated vehicles fitted with ground-penetrating sensors.
The incorporation of a number of Terrier vehicles is not surprising. What remains in doubt is the future of the High Mobility Engineer Excavator, which was originally purchased as a gap-filler between the withdrawal of CET in 2008 and the entry in service of Terrier itself.
It might well be that a number of HMEE will actually stay, to provide a deployable wheeled capability to complement the tracked Terrier.
No details about another component of TALISMAN, the unmanned Mini Minewolf MW240.

Mini Minewolf with all its tools

Buffalo rummaging vehicle with PANAMA in tow

PANAMA in action

Husky: a possible future addition

The retention of TALISMAN elements (or even the interity of it) and its further evolution are a relatively cheap way to meet the  Route Clearance and Mine Countermeasure RCMC requirement of the wider Army 2020 plan. Thales UK, already Mission System Design Authority for TALISMAN, is working with the Army to develop the concept to bring forwards. There is the ambition to maintain the capability and further evolve it, and Husky with ground penetrating radar could well have a role to play.
However, there are alternatives: Pearson Engineering offers its impressive Pearson Engineering Route Opening and Clearing Capability (PEROCC) vehicle, which while expensive to buy new, would arguably replace at least two big parts of TALISMAN: the sensor (PANAMA or Husky) and the rummaging vehicle, currently the US-built Buffalo. It also has a full set of rollers.
PEROCC is a big vehicle, but is air portable inside the C-17, and replacing at least two different platforms with only one could well be actually advantageous.

The huge and very impressive PEROCC brings three capabilities into one vehicle: a complete set of rollers; ground-penetrating radar and sensors; and a powerful rummaging arm. On its own, it can replace two or three of the current TALISMAN vehicles, which could very well prove advantageous.

Other big changes in the Royal Engineers have taken place in 170 (Infrastructure Support) group, which has taken under command the Royal Monmouthshire RE (Militia) regiment and has seen the Specialist Teams (STREs) reorganized across Works Groups.
67 Works Group has been disbanded under the cuts, with the remaining STREs redistributed to concentrate all Heavy Teams (Power, Water, Fuel, Force Protection Engineering (FPE) and Materials)
all under 66 Wks Gp, leaving 62, 63 and 64 Works Groups as construction teams.

How 170 (Infra Sp) Group changes

20 Works Group, for support to air force deployments, sits under 12 Force Support group, alongside the Air Support regiment (39 Regt, paired with the reserve 71 regiment).
36 Regiment, which in these years had been "loaned" to EOD Search work, has moved back into Force Support role, mainly land. In support it has 75 Regiment, Army Reserve, which is receiving the M3 rigs to become the Army's sole Wide Wet Gap Crossing regiment, replacing the regular capability which used to come from the now disbanding 28 Regiment RE.

25 Group (Close Support) is wholly new, and is born out of the Army 2020 decision to centralize control of combat support units. It will have two Hybrid Adaptable Regiments, including reserve squadrons (21 and 32 Regt) and 3 regular Armoured Engineer Regiments, for support of the Reaction Force armored brigades.
Only 16 Air Assault and 3rd Commando are retaining direct control of their supporting units. 25 Group will anyway have coordinating authority over them.


Now, if only the Royal Artillery could produce a similar graphic with all the many changes at battery level, it would be very handy! As it stands now, there is still uncertainty regarding many of the details of the Royal Artillery reorganisation, from the unnamed new battery for 12 Regiment to the exact fate of the batteries in 4 RA [97 (Lawson's Company) Battery] and 3 RHA [J (Sidi Rezegh) Battery] that lose their guns but do not disband. These two batteries become additional TAC Groups, but it would be nice to have clarity on this and other things. If the two regiments don't lose other batteries in exchange, they will both end up with two gun batteries each, and two or three TAC Batteries each, denoting that they will be containers for large numbers of Fire Support Teams.
This might be the result of the assumption that FSTs are better provided by regulars due to their more complex role (and training), while additional L118 Light Guns could be provided by the paired regiments of the Army Reserve: 4 RA is paired with 103 RA, and 3 RHA is paired with 105 RA.