The first ever Aviation Brigade in the British Army has formed up, according to the MoD.

The British Army say in a release that combining the advanced reconnaissance capabilities of the Wildcat helicopter of 1st Regiment Army Air Corps (AAC), together with the attack firepower of the Apache helicopter used by 3rd and 4th Regiment AAC, 1st Aviation Brigade is designed to unite the resources previously split between the Aviation Reconnaissance Force and the Attack Helicopter Force, and as a Brigade is a capability distinct from previous airmobile and air assault brigades.

“As well as the tasks conducted by 5th Regiment AAC and their Gazelle helicopters, the reservists of 6th Regiment AAC and the specialist aviation mechanical engineers of 7th Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers complete the lineup of Brigade units. The environment in which the British Army and our allies are now operating in is changing and continues to evolve – at pace. The new world sees our adversaries engaging in operations that requires our soldiers to operate across a broad spectrum of operations implemented to protect our homeland, all whilst persistently engaging and constraining our adversaries abroad.

As the way of the military evolves, it places a focus on what combat aviation needs to be prepared for. To meet such challenges 1st Aviation Brigade will generate a Combat Aviation Force in order to deploy on operations, which will possess the capacity to concurrently plan, execute and sustain multiple aviation manoeuvres, and scale up and down in size and power as required.”

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The 1st Aviation Brigade flash is a pair of red Griffin Wings on a background horizontally halved on the colours of the Army Air Corps, say the British Army.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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41 COMMENTS

  1. Just a proviso on this story; it isn’t new capability but rather a reassignment of present assets. If we ever had to send out a reinforced division perhaps, just perhaps the aviation Bde would go but in most defence scenarios the 1st Aviation Bde would go out as penny packet assets assigned to other Bde HQs. Consequently the ‘new’ Bde is more of an administrative formation.

  2. Gabriele announced this as a long overdue development on his UKAFC blog back at the start of April. Gave pretty indepth detail.

      • Of course not the old news angle on this, Daniele. Just that Gabriele’s input was so early and extensive for anyone intrigued for good background. I’m mostly maritime in outlook, but his blog is one of only two that I rely on for extensive land-centric input, not always in total accord, mind. Those are more rarely posted, hence the reference; as much because they do deal in such depth, naturally.
        The other is UK Land Power, which has just given a fine insight to Strike and it’s original intended harmony with armoured infantry battalions. Again, nothing new to you, I know.
        Regards for now.

        • Morning George. Agree with you
          Gabs blog and UKDJ are the only 2 sites I use daily.
          Gabriele goes in depth which I appreciate.
          And he’s not even a Brit.

          Fantastic.

        • I also recommend, if you do Twitter, following UKAFC on there. As you say, his posts being so in depth they are rare, and have got more so since earlier days. His Twitter updates are daily and provide good updates or pointers for further study.

          Cheers George.

    • Ah shame, I stopped reading Gabriel around the time he started to turn into a frothing at the mouth Europhobe.

  3. I didn’t realise that the UK still operated Gazelles. Turns out their life has been extended till 2025. It’ll be interesting to see if there is a like for like replacement.

    • They are the longest ever serving platform I believe. And are great in the roles they do, not many today though and they will need replacing, but what with?

      • UAVs probably for the frontline jobs. There was talk for a while of using the gubbins from Fire-scout to convert old Gazelles into uavs but that seems to have died a death.

      • They have given great service, what’s needed is a buy of an off the shelf type, perhaps a batch of Lakotas from US Army production would fit the bill.

    • H145M- light reconnaissance and attack helicopter would fit the bill- slightly bigger than gazelle but able to deploy a few troops and carrier a bigger payload.

      • Or the AW109 but I think we all know that in this day and age , the MOD are more likely to say the Wildcat will have to fill in the gaps and then when that doesn’t work, just do without.

    • The wildcat is actually a decent replacement for the Gazelle. What is needed is an off the shelf replacement for the lynx in the transport role such as the AW139. As for the Gazelle role in BATUS I’d personally suggest a small order of HC135.

  4. It seems likely that the apache’s will need to be assigned onto the carriers, to cover up the slow buy rate of the f35, now that it has been exposed again post the US threatening to pulling out of filling the hole for us.

    • I don’t think the US will do that, the Marine Corps is already very keen on the deployment as it highlights the concept of the lightning carrier and how marine corps aviation can support a full sized carrier deployment.
      I think the US congress are unlikely to follow through on a few members bluster to pull the deployment.

      • The US Marine Corps is undergoing a mission transformation under its new Commandant and plans to reduce the size of its F-35 squadrons from 16 to 10, a 37.5% reduction. That will be accomplished through a reduction in the number of F-35s to be purchased. The enthusiasm to deploy the remaining F-35Bs on UK carriers will fall by the wayside.

        • Your last sentence, that’s something I have pondered on too.

          I still think in a large operation I think QE would still soak up USMC F35b leaving the LHx hangars and flight decks for CV22 / CH53 to have a bit more room.

          • Normally i would agree that the US wouldn’t follow through, but under the current administration i fear they may.

          • Can hardly blame them. I don’t know of any defence savvy commentators who think the Huawei 5G deal is a good idea.

          • Defense commentators are not telco security experts, so their opinion isn’t really worth a lot more than mine or yours and i know very little about telco security.

            We know GCHQ did a review of the risks and they believe it is containable. What we don’t know is the full details of the report, it could easily have been caveated to the nth degree and politicians are taking what they want to read from it. But on the face of it its secure.

            We also know that most of the pressure from the US is also not coming from the intelligence community but its coming from politicians.

            Finally we know post Snowden that the US has multiple back doors into our infrastructure.

            I therefore honestly think it’s not so much about china getting a backdoor in, but more about US losing its own, plus that the money isn’t going to US companies.

            It would be interesting to see what the reaction would be if we turned around and said ok instead we are going with Nokia gear rather than from US companies (dont’ think there are any native options to the UK).

          • Yes Steve, your last paragraph hits the nail on the head. Watch out for the up and coming trade deal…..just how many strings will be attached?

          • Whilst i hope it is fake news, i heard that one of the leaks from the trade deals was that the UK people would not be allowed to know the details of the deal until 5 years after it came into effect, effectively to ensure it was too late to unwind it. Would be shocking if the UK gov accepted that.

          • I would expect Starmer (and back-bench farming lobby MPs) to be on that immediately…..if true, they can’t be allowed to get away with that one. I wonder if the inevitable enquiry into the government handling of coronavirus will be published before the next election….somehow I think not!

          • Big changes ongoing with the USMC. I think when push comes to shove we will have USMC F35’s on the QE next year, otherwise forget about a Far East deployment. This only highlights the utterly ridiculous procurement rate the UK agreed to as a tier one partner.

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