Force Troops Command was a combat support and combat service support command of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

. Its headquarters was at

Upavon Upavon is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. As its name suggests, it is on the upper portion of the River Avon which runs from north to south through the village. It is on the north edge of Salisbury Plain ...

, Wiltshire. It was formed in 2013 as a re-designation of the previous Headquarters Theatre Troops. Force Troops Command was renamed as

6th (United Kingdom) Division The 6th (United Kingdom) Division is an infantry division of the British Army. It was first established by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington for service in the Peninsular War as part of the Anglo-Portuguese Army and was active for most o ...

in August 2019.

History

Previously, General Officer Commanding, Theatre Troops was a senior

officer responsible for the provision of Combat Support and Combat Service Support operations worldwide in support of the UK's Defence Strategy. There were two logistic brigades

102 Logistic Brigade 102nd Logistic Brigade (102 Log Bde) is a logistic brigade of the British Army. Its role is to force generate and force prepare fighting elements, including the Headquarters, globally, for current operations and deliver capability to contingent f ...

in Germany and 101 Logistic Brigade in the United Kingdom which contained logistic units to support the two deployable divisions ( 1st Armoured Division in Germany and 3rd Mechanised Division in the United Kingdom). Additionally

104th Logistic Support Brigade 104 Theatre Sustainment Brigade is a specialist logistic support formation of the British Army. The brigade is the only one of its kind, and as such contains many of the special units of the Royal Logistic Corps and Royal Electrical and Mechani ...

operates the specialist units needed to deploy a force overseas such as pioneers, movements and port units. Theatre Troops became Force Troops Command under

Army 2020 Army 2020, was the name given to the restructuring of the British Army, in light of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. Background The British Government gave an indication of its proposals for the future structure of the Army in ea ...

in 2013 and reached Full Operating Capability (FOC) on 1 April 2014. 101 or 102 Logistic Brigades subsequently left Force Troops Command. The

Joint Ground-Based Air Defence Command The Joint Ground Based Air Defence Headquarters or JtGBAD HQ was a joint (non-deployable), force-generating British military formation under the operational command of RAF Air Command, sitting under No.1 Group. It was formed circa 2000 and disb ...

, which was jointly controlled by

RAF Air Command Air Command is the only Command currently active in the Royal Air Force. It was formed by the merger of Royal Air Force Strike and Personnel and Training commands on 1 April 2007, and has its headquarters at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. ...

, was replaced by

7 Air Defence Group 7th Air Defence Group (7 AD Gp) is a formation of the British Army and part of 3rd (United Kingdom) Division. It is responsible for all the army's ground based air defence assets. All of the organisation's subordinate units are drawn from the Roy ...

on 1 April 2019. Force Troops Command was renamed as

on 1 August 2019, with sub-units consisting of 1st Signal Brigade, 11th Signal Brigade, 1st Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade, 77th Brigade and the Specialised Infantry Group. It will sit alongside restructured 1st UK Division and 3rd UK Division.

Structure

Formation

Largest

Force Troops Command comprised nine ‘functional’ brigades. The various units included: The Intelligence and Surveillance Brigade which provided integrated intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, drawing specifically on lessons from Afghanistan. 1st Artillery Brigade delivered both close support artillery and precision fires, as well as leading Air-Land Integration. 8 Engineer Brigade commanded the close support engineer units, as well as Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search, Force Support and Infrastructure Groups. The 77th Brigade was involved in conflict prevention and stabilisation through the projection of soft power.Major-General Tim Radford, 'Troops at the ready,' The British Army 2014, p.118-119 UK Army Force Troops 2018

Commanders

Commanders have included:Army Commands

General Officer Commanding, Theatre Troops *2001–2004 Major General James Shaw *2004–2006 Major General

Tim Cross Major General Timothy Cross, CBE (born 19 April 1951) is a retired British Army officer and military logistics expert.

*2006–2008 Major General

Hamish Rollo Major-General (Norman) Hamish Rollo CBE (21 May 1955 – 26 March 2009) was a British Army officer who became General Officer Commanding, Theatre Troops. Military career Educated at Radley College and the Royal Military College of Science at S ...

*2008–2011 Major General

Bruce Brealey Major General Bruce Brealey CB (born 8 February 1959) is a British Army officer who served as Deputy Commanding General of the Multi-National Corps – Iraq from 2007 to 2008. Military career Educated at St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington, ...

*2011–2013 Major General

Shaun Burley Major General Shaun Alex Burley, (born 4 March 1962) is a British Army officer who served as Military Secretary. Military career Burley was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1982. He became Commander of 8 Force Engineer Brigade (under ...

General Officer Commanding, Force Troops Command *2013–2015 Major General

Tim Radford Tim Radford (born 1940) is a British–New Zealand freelance journalist, born in New Zealand in 1940 and educated at Sacred Heart College, Auckland. At 16, he joined ''The New Zealand Herald'' as a reporter. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1 ...

*2015–2017 Major General

Tyrone Urch Lieutenant General Sir Tyrone Richard Urch, (born 12 June 1965) is a former senior British Army officer who, during his career, served as General Officer Commanding, Force Troops Command and later Commander, Home Command. Early life and educa ...

*2017–2019 Major General

Thomas Copinger-Symes Lieutenant General Tom Richardson Copinger-Symes, (born 18 November 1969), is a British Army officer, who serves as the Deputy Commander, Strategic Command since May 2022. Copinger-Symes previously served as General Officer Commanding Force ...

*July 2019–August 2019 Major General

James Bowder Major General James Maurice Hannan Bowder, is a senior British Army officer. He currently serves as Director of Futures, at Army Command. Military career Bowder was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards on 13 April 1996. He became commanding ...

Footnotes

References

* *

External links

6th (United Kingdom) Division
{{British Army Divisions Commands of the British Army Military units and formations established in 2013 Organisations based in Wiltshire Army 2020