| Defence Intelligence and Security Centre | |
|---|---|
| Chicksands, Near Shefford, Bedfordshire, England | |
| Type | Garrison |
| Built | 1936 |
| In use | 1936 - Present |
| Current owner |
Ministry of Defence |
| Controlled by | Joint Services |
| Occupants | Royal Navy, Intelligence Corps, Royal Air Force |
Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC) is the location of the Headquarters of both the Defence College of Intelligence and the British Army Intelligence Corps. It is located at Chicksands, Bedfordshire, approximately 35 miles (56 km) north of London.
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Chicksands was the site of RAF Chicksands, an RAF signals collection station during and after World War II; during the war it was one of the "Y-Stations" which sent intercepted signals to the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, where ciphers and codes of several Axis countries were decrypted, most importantly the ciphers generated by the German Enigma and Lorenz machines. The station was used by the United States Air Force from 1950 to 1995, also for signals collection, being the location for its first 1,443 feet (440 m) diameter FLR-9 direction finding antenna, commonly known as the Elephant Cage, from 1963 to 1995. The site was closed as an RAF station in 1997, then handed over to the Intelligence Corps allowing the Corps Headquarters and training delivery to re-locate from Templer Barracks in Ashford, Kent.
The Defence college of Intelligence is responsible for delivering training in intelligence and security to members of the British Armed Forces, police and other public sector staff as well as international partners. Training is delivered over three sites, Chicksands, Defence School of Language Beaconsfield and the School of Photography at the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering, Cosford.
The Headquarters of the Intelligence Corps is located on site, with all core training for Intelligence Corps soldiers and officers being delivered through the DCI.
HMS Ferret is a training unit of the Royal Naval Reserve which delivers Intelligence related operational capability.[1]
15 Psychological Operations Group is a unit of the Intelligence Corps which contains personnel from all three UK armed forces. The unit supports deployed commanders in the provision of psychological operations in the operational and tactical environments. [2][3] Formerly known as 15 (UK) Information Support Group, it was codenamed Shadow in the mid-1990s.[4][5]
