77th Brigade (United Kingdom)

77th Brigade
Active 1 September 2014[1]
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Branch  British Army
Size 5 Groups
Part of Force Troops Command
Garrison/HQ Denison Barracks
Commanders
Current
commander		 Brigadier Chris Bell[2]

The 77th Brigade is a British Army formation, created in January 2015 by renaming the Security Assistance Group which was created under the Army 2020 concept.[3][4][5]

It is based at Denison Barracks in Hermitage, Berkshire and will be fully operational by April 2015.[6][7]

The brigade was named the 77th in tribute to the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, which was part of the Chindits, an Indian Army guerilla warfare force led by Orde Wingate who used unorthodox tactics against the Japanese in Burma in World War II. The formation badge of the revived 77th show a mythical Burmese creature in reference to the Chindits.[6]

History

The first 77th Brigade was raised as part of the new army also known as Kitchener's Army and assigned to the 26th Division and served on the Western Front and the Macedonian Front during the First World War. Some of the past units include, 8th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, 11th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 10th Battalion, Black Watch, 12th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 77th Machine Gun Company, 77th SAA Section Ammunition Column and the 77th Trench Mortar Battery.[8]

Role and composition

The Security Assistance Group (SAG)'s mission was to work with cross-Whitehall agencies to achieve the goals of Defence Engagement and Building Stability Overseas Strategies.[9][10][11] 77th Brigade was created to draw together a host of existing and developing capabilities essential to meet the challenges of modern conflict and warfare,[12][6] the unit's objectives will be similar to that of the SAG. Specifically, it is to:

Provide support to other government departments in the aim to achieve stability overseas; lead on special influence methods; build military capacity in all stages of conflict.[4]

The SAG aimed to have a full strength of 453 military and civilian personnel and occasionally, personnel from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development and the Stabilisation Unit may be attached to the Brigade or work with it,[9][13] of this total there will be 440 military posts in the brigade[4] with up to 42% of these being reservists.[12] A recent freedom of information answer in December 2016 stated that the liability of the brigade was 182 regular and 266 reserve but current strength is only 153 regular and 123 reserve.[14]

Structure

Current structure

The current structure is as follows:[15]

  • Information Activity Group - Planning support focusing on the behavioural analysis of actors, audiences and adversaries. Provides the detail synchronisation and delivery of effect
  • Task Group - Provides highly deployable specialists to other parts of the Armed Forces and Government organisations
  • Outreach Group - Provides professional specialists in Security Capacity Building in Defence
  • Support Group - Media Operations and Civil Affairs
  • Engineer & Logistic Staff Corps (ELSC) Group - A powerful and influential specialist Army Reserve unit providing engineering, logistics and communication consultancy to both the MOD and across government agencies.

    • This article contains OGL licensed text One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence:

    Previous structure

    Initially under the Security Assistance Group, the unit included the following units:[5]

    In July 2015 and October 2015, the four individual units above were reshaped and formed the new five Columns of 77th Brigade.[17]

    • No.1 Column - Planning support focusing on the behavioural analysis of actors, audiences and adversaries
    • No.2 Column - Provides reachback support to deployed operations
    • No.3 Column - Provides deployable specialists to other parts of the Armed Forces and other Government organisations
    • No.4 Column - Provides professional specialists in Security Capacity Building
    • No.5 Column - Media operations and Civil Affairs
    • No.7 Column - The Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps - A specialist Army Reserve unit providing engineering, logistics and communication consultancy to both the MoD and across government agencies. (Structure formed in October 2015)

    There is no No.6 Column for historical reasons.[18][19]

    Activities

    The Brigade participated in a two-week disaster relief exercise in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It deployed to the Philippines in April 2015 to assist the Philippines Government in developing their contingency plans for natural disasters.[20] 77th Brigade has formed a formal partnership with the 361st Civil Affairs Brigade, US Army Europe.[21]

    References

    1. ↑ "Newsletter" (PDF). The Military Survey (Geographic) Association. Summer 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    2. ↑ "DSEI Presentation by Brig Chriss Bell CO 77th Brigade". Retrieved 30 November 2017.
    3. ↑ "Army revives Chindits as 'Facebook warriors' for smart battle". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
    4. 1 2 3 "Information Warfare:Written question - 225283". UK Parliament. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
    5. 1 2 "Transforming the British Army" (PDF). Ministry of Defence. p. 13. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    6. 1 2 3 MacAskill, Ewan (31 January 2015). "British army creates team of Facebook warriors". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    7. ↑ "BBC News - Army sets up new brigade 'for information age'". BBC News. 31 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    8. ↑ "26th Division". The Long Long Trail. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
    9. 1 2 "Headquarters Force Troops Command". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    10. ↑ "The British Army Journal 2014" (PDF). British Army. pp. 121–122. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    11. ↑ "Land Power in future conflict". British Army. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    12. 1 2 "The British Army 2014" (PDF). pp. 120–122, 135–137. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
    13. ↑ "Freedom of Information Request" (PDF). Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
    14. ↑ "FOIA 2016/0962/77961" (PDF). Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
    15. ↑ "77th Brigade". mod.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
    16. ↑ "Military Stabilisation Support Group". gov.uk. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
    17. ↑ "77th Brigade". mod.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
    18. ↑ Fogden, Steve. "Rfm. Ramkrishna Limbu IDSM, including the story of Vivian Weatherall". Chindit Chasing, Operation Longcloth 1943. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
    19. ↑ Young, Frank. "Chindits 1st Expedition 1943 Operation Longcloth". Chindits Special Force Burma. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
    20. ↑ "77th Brigade: Natural Disasters Response Training". Forces TV. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
    21. ↑ Jones, Greg (12 November 2015). "21st Theater Sustainment Command forges UK partnership". United States Army. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.