15 Psychological Operations Group
military unit
15 (United Kingdom) Psychological Operations Group was a tri-service, or "purple", military unit formerly parented by 1 Military Intelligence Brigade but from April 2014, part of the Security Assistance Group within the British Army's Force Troops Command. Since April 2015, it has been subsumed into 77th Brigade within 6th (United Kingdom) Division.
History
Following the Gulf War of 1991, the UK formed a shadow PSYOPS unit called 15 (UK) PSYOPS Group (Shadow). A double digit prefix was selected to avoid any confusion with the U.S counterparts of the 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 8th MIS/Psych Ops Groups, 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 used by the World War II 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.
15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group was established immediately after the 1991 Gulf War when the success of US military psychological operations convinced the Ministry of Defence that the UK required a similar capability. Initially, it was composed of just a single desk officer with the intention that it would be augmented by additional personnel when required. As such, the group was referred to in military terminology as a 'shadow' unit. Subsequently, conspiracy theorists have suggested incorrectly that 'shadow' was a covert code name for the group and members of the group have been targeted in the press.
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This entry incorporates text from “15 Psychological Operations Group” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.