Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire/PA Image

The Army has restructured to introduce a division focused on cyber and electronic warfare.

The UK’s field army of deployable troops has reintroduced the 6th Division, which will be dedicated to spearheading the UK’s military response to various forms of “unconventional warfare”. This will include cyberattacks, fake news and propaganda, as well as intelligence-gathering and “information operations”.

The division effectively represents a renaming and refocusing of Force Troops Command, an intelligence unit created six years ago. The 6th will now sit alongside the 1st and 3rd Divisions to comprise the field army’s fighting force. 

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Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army, claimed that the restructure reflects the changing conflict landscape.

“The character of warfare continues to change as the boundaries between conventional and unconventional warfare become increasingly blurred,” he said. “The army must remain adaptable and evolve as a fighting force. The three complementary British army divisions harness the wide range of British army capabilities, providing choice to the government in defence of the UK’s interests.”

Jones added: “The speed of change is moving at a remarkable rate and it will only get faster and more complex.”

The 6th Division has been reformed and disbanded a number of times since being founded during the Napoleonic wars more than 200 years ago. It most recently operated from 2008 to 2011, when it supplied troops for deployment in Afghanistan.

In its new tech-focused guise, it is designed to complement the field army’s 1st division of engineers and light infantry personnel, and the 3rd division, which serves as “the army’s primary armoured warfighting force”.

The restructure will bring with it “no changes to personnel numbers, resourcing, cap badges or locations”, the Army said.