15 (UK) PSYOPS Group Introduction

    
Since 1945, various ad-hoc military and civilian PSYOPS organisations have been formed to support operations and following the Gulf War of 1991, the UK formed a Shadow PSYOPS capability called 15 (UK) PSYOPS Group (Shadow).
A double digit prefix was selected to avoid any confusion with US counterparts, and the number 15 was chosen because PSYOPS battlefield activities in support of 21 Army Group during WW2 were conducted by Amplifier Units (numbered 10-14). The Group adopted the stag's head formation sign, right, used by the WW2 Indian Field Broadcast Units (IFBU) (reputedly the deer's antlers symbolize both the combat support function of PSYOPS and the antennae associated with a major means of dissemination of psychological warfare messages)

staghead small

 

>> View a BBC feature
on the Group's activities

bbcsmall

  

The Role
The role of the current 15 (UK) PSYOPS Group is to influence attitudes in order to affect behaviour in support of a military commander's mission. This is done with planned, culturally sensitive, truthful and attributable activities directed and disseminated by various means to an approved target audience.

The Group
The tri-Service Group consists of Regular and Reserve Officers and Other Ranks, providing operational support, planning, media production, logistic and technical support; with members of all three services ranging from Photographers to Intelligence Analysts and is supported by a small civilian administration support team. The Group has deployed to support all recent military and peace-keeping operations and major exercises throughout Europe. It is under constant development and a current forecast is to increase manning levels for 2006, to 40 Regular and 28 Reserve members.

The Reserves within the group are drawn from all ranks of the RNR, TA and RAuxF, who have specific professional skills and experience to support the Group, ranging from graphic designers to film editors and radio broadcasters as well as other vital technical and support trades

Equipment
The Group operates a full range of professional, air-portable, multi-media equipment, support equipment and vehicles.

Training
In addition to its operational role, the Group also provides PSYOPS training for UK , NATO and other non-NATO forces and organisations.
The Military PSYOPS Course (MPOC) will be replaced in 2005 by a series of new courses:

a. PSYOPS Planner's Course (3 courses per year)
b. Tactical PSYOPS Team Course
c. PSYOPS Operator's Course

new intro