Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr. ) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many armies . Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries, this naval rank is termed as a frigate captain .
107-591: The Far East Combined Bureau , an outstation of the British Government Code and Cypher School , was set up in Hong Kong in March 1935, to monitor Japanese, and also Chinese and Russian (Soviet) intelligence and radio traffic. Later it moved to Singapore , Colombo (Ceylon), Kilindini (Kenya), then returned to Colombo. The Colombo site was known as HMS Anderson or Station Anderson . The FECB
214-537: A KGB mole within it, created considerable media interest. In 1984, GCHQ was the centre of a political row when, in the wake of strikes which affected Sigint collection, the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher prohibited its employees from belonging to a trade union, asserting that membership of a union was in conflict with national security . The government offered £1,000 to each employee who agreed to give up their right to union membership. Following
321-403: A platoon (platoon commander), or to the brigadier commanding a brigade (brigade commander). Other officers commanding units are usually referred to as the officer commanding (OC), commanding officer (CO), general officer commanding (GOC), or general officer commanding-in-chief (GOC-C), depending on rank and position, although the term "commander" may be applied to them informally. In
428-579: A wreath . Within the Metropolitan Police Service, the tips of the tipstaves are blue and not red, unlike other forces. Until the abolition of the rank of deputy commander in 1968, however, a commander wore the same badge of rank as a deputy assistant commissioner. In Australia, commander is a rank used by the Victorian, Tasmanian, Western Australian, South Australian, and Australian Federal police forces. The insignia consists of
535-446: A FOX media segment. The US government formally apologised for the unfounded allegations and promised they would not be repeated. British intelligence did gather information relating to Russian contacts made by Trump's campaign team in the run-up to his election, which were passed on to US intelligence agencies. On 31 October 2018, GCHQ joined Instagram . GCHQ personnel are recognised annually by King Charles III (formerly
642-556: A US court order before disclosing data. However the head of the UK technology industry group techUK rejected these claims, stating that they understood the issues but that disclosure obligations "must be based upon a clear and transparent legal framework and effective oversight rather than, as suggested, a deal between the industry and government". In 2015, documents obtained by The Intercept from US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that GCHQ had carried out
749-634: A command or unit. Some large police departments and sheriff's offices in the US have a commander rank. Most commonly, this is the next rank above captain. Examples of this include the Chicago Police Department , Los Angeles Police Department , San Francisco Police Department , Portland Police Bureau and Rochester Police Department . In others, such as the Phoenix Police Department and Saint Paul Police Department ,
856-568: A commander rank is the next rank above lieutenant, and is equivalent to captain. In the Northport, Florida's police department, however, commanders are below captains. A commander in the LAPD is equivalent to an inspector in other large US departments (such as the NYPD ); the LAPD rank was originally called inspector as well, but was changed in 1974 to commander. The Metropolitan Police Department of
963-584: A conference slideshow presented by the GCHQ. Soon after becoming Director of GCHQ in 2014, Robert Hannigan wrote an article in the Financial Times on the topic of internet surveillance , stating that "however much [large US technology companies] may dislike it, they have become the command and control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals" and that GCHQ and its sister agencies "cannot tackle these challenges at scale without greater support from
1070-640: A cost of £2 million (equivalent to £66,277,880 in 2023), without explaining the purpose to the Ceylon government. Following the Suez War the Ceylon government decided all British bases should close, because they believed Ceylon bases had been used to refuel British ships involved in the Suez War, and the Perkar facility and HMS Anderson were abandoned within five years. Paymaster Henry (Harry) Livingston Shaw
1177-436: A crown over three bath stars in a triangular formation, equivalent to a brigadier in the army. In all four forces, it is junior to the rank of assistant commissioner , and senior to the rank of chief superintendent , with the exception of Western Australia and Victoria where it is senior to the rank of superintendent . In New South Wales the position of commander is instated to officers (usually superintendents) in charge of
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#17327800736961284-501: A group of 14 former GCHQ employees, who had been dismissed after refusing to give up their union membership, were offered re-employment, which three of them accepted. The legal case Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service is significant beyond the dispute, and even beyond trade union law, in that it held for the first time that the royal prerogative is generally subject to judicial review , although
1391-847: A key part, which had to be borrowed from the Indian State Railways in Bombay ) arrived safely in Colombo. FECB also cooperated with Kamer 14 (Room 14), the Dutch unit at the Bandung Technical College in Java . Initially some of the FECB people went there after the fall of Singapore. Lieutenant - Commander Leo Brouwer RNN, a Japanese linguist at Kamer 14 was evacuated to Colombo, then Kilindini, and later Hut 7 . With
1498-454: A mass-surveillance operation, codenamed KARMA POLICE , since about 2008. The operation swept up the IP address of Internet users visiting websites, and was established with no public scrutiny or oversight. KARMA POLICE is a powerful spying tool in conjunction with other GCHQ programs because IP addresses could be cross-referenced with other data. The goal of the program, according to the documents,
1605-420: A minimum of three years at their present rank and after attaining 15 to 17 years of cumulative commissioned service, although this percentage may vary and be appreciably less for certain officer designators (i.e., primary "specialties") depending on defense budgets, force structure, and the needs of the service. For instance, as in various small colonial settlements (such as various Caribbean islands) commanding
1712-472: A result of the cuts. The cuts had been mostly reversed by 2000 in the wake of threats from violent non-state actors , and risks from increased terrorism, organised crime and illegal access to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. David Omand became the Director of GCHQ in 1996, and greatly restructured the agency in the face of new and changing targets and rapid technological change. Omand introduced
1819-407: A title in certain circumstances, such as the commander of a squad of detectives, who would usually be of the rank of lieutenant, and in some police or sheriff's departments where commanders are ranks, officers or deputies of separate ranks are also referred to as commander by title. The Montreal police force, Service de police de la Ville de Montréal , uses the rank of commander (Commandant) . In
1926-649: Is a naval rank in Scandinavia ( Kommandør in Danish and Norwegian, Kommendör in Swedish) equivalent to the Anglo-American naval rank of captain. The Scandinavian rank of commander is immediately above "commander-captain" ( Norwegian : Kommandørkaptein , Swedish : Kommendörkapten , Danish : Kommandørkaptajn ), which is equivalent to the Anglo-American naval rank of commander. In Denmark,
2033-527: Is a rank used in navies , but is very rarely used as a rank in armies . In most armies, the term "commander" is used as a job title. For example, in the US Army , an officer with the rank of captain ( NATO rank code OF-2 ) may hold the title of " company commander ", whereas an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel ( NATO rank code OF-4 ) typically holds the title of " battalion commander". The title, originally "master and commander", originated in
2140-487: Is a senior-grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-5. Commander ranks above lieutenant commander (O-4) and below captain . (O-6). Commander is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the United States Army , United States Air Force , United States Marine Corps , and United States Space Force . Notably, commander is the first rank at which the holder wears an embellished cap, whereas officers of
2247-446: Is a small department and cross-government resource responsible for mainly technical language support and translation and interpreting services across government departments. It is co-located with GCHQ for administrative purposes. In 2013, GCHQ received considerable media attention when the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the agency was in the process of collecting all online and telephone data in
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#17327800736962354-534: Is above the rank of lieutenant commander , below the rank of captain , and is equivalent in rank to a lieutenant colonel in the army. A commander may command a frigate , destroyer , submarine , aviation squadron or shore installation, or may serve on a staff. Since the British Royal Air Force 's mid-rank officers' ranks are modelled on those of the Royal Navy , the term wing commander
2461-494: Is designated as mission commander. The commander is the captain of the ship, and makes all real-time critical decisions on behalf of the crew and in coordination with the Mission Control Center (MCC). The title of aircraft commander is used in civil aviation to refer to the pilot in command (commonly referred to as "captain", which is technically an airline rank and not related to the commander's role on board
2568-628: Is that GCHQ and its US equivalent, the National Security Agency (NSA), share technologies, infrastructure and information. GCHQ ran many signals intelligence (SIGINT) monitoring stations abroad. During the early Cold War , the remnants of the British Empire provided a global network of ground stations which were a major contribution to the UKUSA Agreement; the US regarded RAF Little Sai Wan in Hong Kong as
2675-479: Is typically a lieutenant or captain , a squadron commander is typically a major or lieutenant colonel , a group commander is typically a colonel , a wing commander is typically a senior colonel or a brigadier general , a numbered air force commander is a major general or lieutenant general , and the commander of a major command is a general . In the United States Space Force ,
2782-641: Is used as a rank, and this is the equivalent of a lieutenant colonel in the army or a commander in the navy. The rank of wing commander is above that of squadron leader and below that of group captain . In the former Royal Naval Air Service , which was merged with the Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force in 1918, the pilots held appointments as well as their normal ranks in the Royal Navy, and they wore insignia appropriate to
2889-644: The British Army for GCHQ. In March 2010, GCHQ was criticised by the Intelligence and Security Committee for problems with its IT security practices and failing to meet its targets for work targeted against cyber attacks. As revealed by Edward Snowden in The Guardian , GCHQ spied on foreign politicians visiting the 2009 G-20 London Summit by eavesdropping phonecalls and emails and monitoring their computers, and in some cases even ongoing after
2996-609: The Communications-Electronic Security Department (CESD). In October 1969, CESD was merged into GCHQ and becoming Communications-Electronic Security Group ( CESG ). In 1977 CESG relocated from Eastcote to Cheltenham. CESG continued as the UK National Technical Authority for information assurance , including cryptography . CESG did not manufacture security equipment, but worked with industry to ensure
3103-539: The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry commander is a rank equivalent to major . Commandeur as title of colonial office was the case on the island of Tobago in the Dutch colony of Nieuw Walcheren . The usage is similar/identical to the British Army , with the term "commander" having been applied to the colonel who was Commander, 2 Land Force Group, Linton Camp, and now to Commander, 1 Brigade . In
3210-572: The Incident Command System the incident commander is in charge of the response to an emergency. The title may pass from person to person as the incident develops. The title of commander is used in chivalric orders such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta for a member senior to a knight . The title of knight commander is often used to denote an even higher rank. These conventions are also used by most of
3317-450: The RSA algorithm had been developed (equivalent to Cocks's system) and by 1997 was extremely well established. Commander Commander is also a generic term for an officer commanding any armed forces unit, for example " platoon commander ", " brigade commander" and " squadron commander". In the police, terms such as " borough commander" and " incident commander " are used. Commander
Far East Combined Bureau - Misplaced Pages Continue
3424-573: The Royal Navy 's Eastern Fleet . Initially the Bureau wanted to move to Australia, but were reportedly told by the Director of Signals Communication, Lieutenant Commander Jack B. Newman that facilities were not available. Many have since been baffled why they were told that, though Newman "had no intention of letting the British arrive and run the show"; they wanted to commandeer all Australia's intercept stations for their own use. In April 1942 most of
3531-706: The Second World War it was located at Bletchley Park , where it was responsible for breaking the German Enigma codes . There are two main components of GCHQ, the Composite Signals Organisation (CSO), which is responsible for gathering information, and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is responsible for securing the UK's own communications. The Joint Technical Language Service (JTLS)
3638-602: The Spanish Army , the Spanish Air Force and the marine infantry , the term commander is the literal translation of comandante , the Spanish equivalent of a Commonwealth major . The Guardia Civil shares the army ranks, and the officer commanding a house-garrison (usually an NCO or a lieutenant, depending on the size) is addressed as the comandante de puesto (post commander). In the United States Army ,
3745-678: The Suez War led to the eviction of GCHQ from several of its best foreign SIGINT collection sites, including the new Perkar, Ceylon site and RAF Habbaniya , Iraq. The staff largely moved to tented encampments on military bases in Cyprus, which later became the Sovereign Base Area . During the Cuban Missile Crisis , GCHQ Scarborough intercepted radio communications from Soviet ships reporting their positions and used that to establish where they were heading. A copy of
3852-480: The United States Air Force , the term "commander" (abbreviated "CC" in office symbols, i.e. "OG/CC" for "operations group commander") is applied officially to the commanding officer of an Air Force unit; hence, there are flight commanders, squadron commanders, group commanders, wing commanders, numbered air force commanders, and commanders of major commands . In rank, a flight commander
3959-477: The garrison was the crux of the top job, the military title Commandeur could be used instead of a civilian gubernatorial style, not unlike the Portuguese captain-major . In the British Army , the term "commander" is officially applied to the non-commissioned officer in charge of a section (section commander), vehicle (vehicle commander) or gun (gun commander), to the subaltern or captain commanding
4066-429: The 18th century to describe naval officers who commanded ships of war too large to be commanded by a lieutenant but too small to warrant the assignment of a post-captain and (before about 1770) a sailing master ; the commanding officer served as his own master. In practice, these were usually unrated sloops-of-war of no more than 20 guns. The Royal Navy shortened "master and commander" to "commander" in 1794; however,
4173-606: The 1920s, GC&CS was successfully reading Soviet Union diplomatic cyphers. However, in May 1927, during a row over clandestine Soviet support for the General Strike and the distribution of subversive propaganda, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin made details from the decrypts public. During the Second World War, GC&CS was based largely at Bletchley Park , in present-day Milton Keynes , working on understanding
4280-694: The American Purple machines from Bletchley Park in a warship. Supposed to be sent only by warship or military transport, it was trans-shipped at Durban to the freighter Sussex . The ship's Master said he landed it at the Naval Store Singapore at the end of December 1941, but the Naval Stores Officer denied any knowledge of it; hopefully it was destroyed or dumped in the sea. But the Hollerith tabulating machine (minus
4387-849: The Army and RAF codebreakers went to the Wireless Experimental Centre in Delhi, India. The Navy codebreakers in FECB went to Colombo , Ceylon, then to Kilindini , near Mombasa , Kenya. GC&CS was renamed the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in June 1946. The organisation was at first based in Eastcote in northwest London, then in 1951 moved to the outskirts of Cheltenham , setting up two sites at Oakley and Benhall . One of
Far East Combined Bureau - Misplaced Pages Continue
4494-571: The District of Columbia also uses the rank of commander, which is a grade above inspector and two grades above captain. In the Montgomery County, MD police department a commander is a captain assigned to command a police district. The insignia worn is commonly every insignia between major and major general, depending on the police or sheriff's department. Albuquerque Police Department commanders are captain equivalents, however, with
4601-611: The First World War, the British Army and Royal Navy had separate signals intelligence agencies, MI1b and NID25 (initially known as Room 40) respectively. In 1919, the Cabinet's Secret Service Committee, chaired by Lord Curzon , recommended that a peacetime codebreaking agency should be created, a task which was given to the Director of Naval Intelligence , Hugh Sinclair . Sinclair merged staff from NID25 and MI1b into
4708-558: The German Enigma machine and Lorenz ciphers . In 1940, GC&CS was working on the diplomatic codes and ciphers of 26 countries, tackling over 150 diplomatic cryptosystems. Senior staff included Alastair Denniston , Oliver Strachey , Dilly Knox , John Tiltman , Edward Travis , Ernst Fetterlein , Josh Cooper , Donald Michie , Alan Turing , Gordon Welchman , Joan Clarke , Max Newman , William Tutte , I. J. (Jack) Good , Peter Calvocoressi and Hugh Foss . The 1943 British–US Communication Intelligence Agreement, BRUSA , connected
4815-772: The Hong Kong stations operations were moved to Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station in Geraldton in Western Australia . Operations that used GCHQ's intelligence-gathering capabilities in the 1990s included the monitoring of communications of Iraqi soldiers in the Gulf War , of dissident republican terrorists and the Real IRA , of the various factions involved in the Yugoslav Wars , and of
4922-607: The House of Lords ruled in favour of the Crown in this instance. The Intelligence Services Act 1994 formalised the activities of the intelligence agencies for the first time, defining their purpose, and the British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee was given a remit to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the three intelligence agencies. The objectives of GCHQ were defined as working as "in
5029-645: The Japanese advance down the Malay Peninsula, the Army and RAF codebreakers went to the Wireless Experimental Centre in Delhi, India. The RN codebreakers went to Colombo, Ceylon in January 1942, on the troopship HMS Devonshire (with 12 codebreakers' cars as deck cargo). Pembroke College, an Indian boys school, was requisitioned as a combined codebreaking and wireless interception centre. The FECB worked for Admiral Sir James Somerville , commander-in-chief of
5136-684: The Japanese merchant marine suffering 90 per cent losses by August 1945. FECB then moved back to Colombo; the move began in August 1943, with the advance party arriving in Ceylon on 1 September. Eight Wren Typex operators were killed in February 1944, when their ship the Khedive Ismail en route from Kenya to Ceylon was sunk by a Japanese submarine. The location chosen was the Anderson Golf Course six miles from Colombo HQ, hence
5243-458: The Japanese on Christmas Day 1941. FECB went to Seletar Naval Base , and the intercept station to Kranji . An RAF "Y" interception unit, 52 Wireless Unit, arrived in Singapore in early November 1941. As Bletchley Park was concentrating on German Enigma cyphers, many of the Japanese naval section in Hut 7 moved to FECB, Singapore. By May 1940 there were forty people working solely on JN-25, who could read simple messages. The new codebook JN-25B
5350-411: The Prince of Wales) at the Prince of Wales's Intelligence Community Awards at St James's Palace or Clarence House alongside members of the Security Service (MI5), and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Awards and citations are given to teams within the agencies as well as individuals. As well as a mission to gather intelligence, GCHQ has for a long time had a corresponding mission to assist in
5457-415: The RN codebreakers at Colombo moved to Kilindini near Mombasa in Kenya , because of a Japanese task force attack on Colombo. Two codebreakers and the civilian wireless operators were left in Colombo. An Indian boys school at Allidina about a mile outside Mombasa and overlooking the Indian Ocean was requisitioned, hence the name HMS Allidina . Radio reception was even worse than at Colombo, with only
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#17327800736965564-428: The Security Service and SIS (MI5 and MI6). In December 1994 the businessman Roger Hurn was commissioned to begin a review of GCHQ, which was concluded in March 1995. Hurn's report recommended a cut of £100 million in GCHQ's budget; such a large reduction had not been suffered by any British intelligence agency since the end of World War II. The J Division of GCHQ, which had collected SIGINT on Russia, disappeared as
5671-407: The UK via the Tempora programme. Snowden's revelations began a spate of ongoing disclosures of global surveillance . The Guardian newspaper was forced to destroy computer hard drives with the files Snowden had given them because of the threats of a lawsuit under the Official Secrets Act. In June 2014, The Register reported that the information the government sought to suppress by destroying
5778-448: The aircraft). Within the British police , Commander is a chief officer rank in the two police forces responsible for law enforcement within London , the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police . In both forces, the rank is senior to chief superintendent ; in the Metropolitan Police it is junior to deputy assistant commissioner and in the City of London Police it is junior to assistant commissioner . In forces outside London,
5885-619: The appointment instead of the rank. A flight commander wore a star above a lieutenant's two rank stripes, squadron commander wore two stars above two rank stripes (less than eight years' seniority) or two-and-a-half rank stripes (over eight years seniority), and wing commander wore three rank stripes. The rank stripes had the usual Royal Navy curl, and they were surmounted by an eagle. In the United States Navy , United States Coast Guard , United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps , and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps , commander (abbreviated "CDR")
5992-442: The availability of suitable products and services, while GCHQ itself funded research into such areas, for example to the Centre for Quantum Computation at Oxford University and the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research at the University of Bristol . In the 21st century, CESG ran a number of assurance schemes such as CHECK, CLAS , Commercial Product Assurance (CPA) and CESG Assisted Products Service (CAPS). In 1970
6099-413: The brass version of the captain's insignia. In some other police or sheriff's departments where the captains have brass insignias instead of silver, such as Florida's Lee County Sheriff's Department, commanders are above captains, and below majors, with the insignia being brass captain's bars with wreathes around. Northport's police commanders have the insignia of second lieutenants. Commander is also used as
6206-402: The breakdown of talks and the failure to negotiate a no-strike agreement, a number of mass national one-day strikes were held to protest against this decision, believed by some to be the first step to wider bans on trade unions. Appeals to British courts and the European Commission of Human Rights were unsuccessful. An appeal to the International Labour Organization resulted in a decision that
6313-401: The bureau was involved in “turf wars”, although they eventually accepted that they had no control over the use of intelligence reports. Initially the Y section was to focus on the three main Japanese Navy codes and cyphers ; the Japanese Naval General Cypher, the Flag Officer code and the "tasogare" or basic naval reporting code used to report the sailings of individual ships. In 1938 a section
6420-693: The concept for public-key encryption ( public key infrastructure ) was developed and proven by GCHQ's James H. Ellis . Ellis lacked the number theory skills required to build a workable system. In 1974 GCHQ mathematician Clifford Cocks had developed a workable public key cryptography algorithm and a workable PKI system. Cocks's system was not available in the public domain until it was declassified in 1997. By 1997 broader public key cryptography commercial technologies had been independently developed and had become well established, in areas such as email security , digital signatures , and TLS (a fundamental TCP/IP security component) etc. Most notably in 1977
6527-431: The concept of "Sinews" (or "SIGINT New Systems") which allowed more flexible working methods, avoiding overlaps in work by creating fourteen domains, each with a well-defined working scope. The tenure of Omand also saw the construction of a modern new headquarters, intended to consolidate the two old sites at Oakley and Benhall into a single, more open-plan work environment. Located on a 176-acre site in Benhall, it would be
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#17327800736966634-475: The continental orders of chivalry. The United Kingdom uses different classifications. In most of the British orders of knighthood, the grade of knight (or dame) commander is the lowest grade of knighthood, but is above the grade of companion (which does not carry a knighthood). In the Royal Victorian Order and the Order of the British Empire , the grade of commander is senior to the grade of lieutenant or officer, but junior to that of knight or dame commander. In
6741-413: The criminal Kenneth Noye . In the mid-1990s GCHQ began to assist in the investigation of cybercrime . At the end of 2003, GCHQ moved in to its new building. Built on a circular plan around a large central courtyard, it quickly became known as the Doughnut . At the time, it was one of the largest public-sector building projects in Europe, with an estimated cost of £337 million. The new building, which
6848-426: The equivalent rank standing of commanders. This means that to officers and NCOs below the rank of commander, lieutenant colonel, or wing commander, the chaplain is a superior. To those officers ranked higher than commander, the chaplain is subordinate. Although this equivalency exists, RAN chaplains who are in divisions 1, 2 or 3 do not actually wear the rank of commander, and they hold no command privilege. Commander
6955-403: The government's actions were in violation of Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention . A no-strike agreement was eventually negotiated and the ban lifted by the incoming Labour government in 1997, with the Government Communications Group of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) being formed to represent interested employees at all grades. In 2000,
7062-564: The handling of this issue was becoming essential to their credibility as an organisation. The Internet had become a "cyber commons", with its dominance creating a "second age of Sigint". GCHQ transformed itself accordingly, including greatly expanded Public Relations and Legal departments, and adopting public education in cyber security as an important part of its remit. In February 2014, The Guardian , based on documents provided by Snowden, revealed that GCHQ had indiscriminately collected 1.8 million private Yahoo webcam images from users across
7169-399: The hard drives related to the location of a "beyond top secret" GCHQ internet monitoring base in Seeb , Oman, and the close involvement of BT and Cable & Wireless in intercepting internet communications. GCHQ is led by the Director of GCHQ, Anne Keast-Butler , and a Corporate Board, made up of executive and non-executive directors. Reporting to the Corporate Board are: During
7276-445: The intelligence agencies should "investigate whether all the functions that GCHQ carries out today are still necessary." In late 1993 civil servant Michael Quinlan advised a deep review of the work of GCHQ following the conclusion of his "Review of Intelligence Requirements and Resources", which had imposed a 3% cut on the agency. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury , Jonathan Aitken , subsequently held face to face discussions with
7383-460: The intelligence agency directors to assess further savings in the wake of Quinlan's review. Aldrich (2010) suggests that Sir John Adye , the then Director of GCHQ performed badly in meetings with Aitken, leading Aitken to conclude that GCHQ was "suffering from out-of-date methods of management and out-of-date methods for assessing priorities". GCHQ's budget was £850 million in 1993, (£2.19 billion as of 2023) compared to £125 million for
7490-482: The interests of national security, with particular reference to the defence and foreign policies of His Majesty's government; in the interests of the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom; and in support of the prevention and the detection of serious crime". During the introduction of the Intelligence Agency Act in late 1993, the former Prime Minister Jim Callaghan had described GCHQ as a "full-blown bureaucracy", adding that future bodies created to provide oversight of
7597-410: The largest building constructed for secret intelligence operations outside the United States. Operations at GCHQ's Chung Hom Kok listening station in Hong Kong ended in 1994. GCHQ's Hong Kong operations were extremely important to their relationship with the NSA, who contributed investment and equipment to the station. In anticipation of the transfer of Hong Kong to the Chinese government in 1997,
7704-728: The main focus of GC&CS was on diplomatic traffic, with "no service traffic ever worth circulating" and so, at the initiative of Lord Curzon, it was transferred from the Admiralty to the Foreign Office . GC&CS came under the supervision of Hugh Sinclair , who by 1923 was both the Chief of SIS and Director of GC&CS. In 1925, both organisations were co-located on different floors of Broadway Buildings, opposite St. James's Park . Messages decrypted by GC&CS were distributed in blue-jacketed files that became known as "BJs". In
7811-701: The major reasons for selecting Cheltenham was that the town had been the location of the headquarters of the United States Army Services of Supply for the European Theater during the War, which built up a telecommunications infrastructure in the region to carry out its logistics tasks. Following the Second World War , US and British intelligence have shared information as part of the UKUSA Agreement . The principal aspect of this
7918-541: The most valuable of these. The monitoring stations were largely run by inexpensive National Service recruits, but when this ended in the early 1960s, the increased cost of civilian employees caused budgetary problems. In 1965 a Foreign Office review found that 11,500 staff were involved in SIGINT collection (8,000 GCHQ staff and 3,500 military personnel), exceeding the size of the Diplomatic Service . Reaction to
8025-544: The name HMS Anderson . Bruce Keith had wanted an up-country site for better reception, but the Chief of Intelligence staff for HQ Eastern Fleet insisted that the codebreakers should be within easy reach of headquarters. While reception was better than at Kilindini, it was affected by a nearby 33 Kv power line and the Racecourse Aerodrome. In the 1950s, GCHQ developed a new site that could monitor signals from all direction at Perkar to replace HMS Anderson , at
8132-552: The navy of the Dutch Republic , anyone who commanded a ship or a fleet without having an appropriate rank to do so could be called a Commandeur . This included ad hoc fleet commanders and acting captains ( Luitenant-Commandeur ). In the fleet of the Admiralty of Zeeland however, commandeur was a formal rank, the equivalent of Schout-bij-nacht (rear-admiral) in the other Dutch admiralties. The Dutch use of
8239-536: The new organisation, which initially consisted of around 25–30 officers and a similar number of clerical staff. It was titled the "Government Code and Cypher School" (GC&CS), a cover-name which was chosen by Victor Forbes of the Foreign Office . Alastair Denniston , who had been a member of NID25, was appointed as its operational head. It was initially under the control of the Admiralty and located in Watergate House, Adelphi, London. Its public function
8346-702: The organisation at Eastcote later that year. From 1952 to 1954, the intelligence mission of GCHQ relocated to Cheltenham; the Security section remained at Eastcote, and in March 1954 became a separate, independent organisation: the London Communications Security Agency (LCSA), which in 1958 was renamed to the London Communications-Electronic Security Agency (LCESA). In April 1965, GPO and MOD units merged with LCESA to become
8453-548: The other military services are entitled to embellishment of similar headgear at O-4 rank. Promotion to commander in the U.S. Navy is governed by United States Department of Defense policies derived from the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) of 1980 or its companion Reserve Officer Personnel Management Act (ROPMA). DOPMA/ROPMA guidelines suggest that 70% of lieutenant commanders should be promoted to commander after serving
8560-399: The private sector", arguing that most internet users "would be comfortable with a better and more sustainable relationship between the [intelligence] agencies and the tech companies". Since the 2013 global surveillance disclosures , large US technology companies have improved security and become less co-operative with foreign intelligence agencies, including those of the UK, generally requiring
8667-531: The protection of the British government's own communications. When the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was created in 1919, its overt task was providing security advice. GC&CS's Security section was located in Mansfield College, Oxford during the Second World War. In April 1946, GC&CS became GCHQ, and the now GCHQ Security section moved from Oxford to join the rest of
8774-441: The rank equates to assistant chief constable which bears the same insignia. The Metropolitan Police introduced the rank in 1946, after the rank of deputy assistant commissioner was split in two, with senior DACs keeping that rank and title and junior DACs being regraded as commanders. The Metropolitan Police also used the rank of deputy commander , ranking just below that of commander, between 1946 and 1968. Officers in charge of
8881-457: The rank of commander due to the size, complexity, and high-profile nature of the borough. The Metropolitan Police Service announced that by summer 2018 the rank would be phased out, along with that of chief inspector . However, in August 2017 it was announced that the new Commissioner Cressida Dick had cancelled the plan to phase them out. The rank badge worn by a commander or an assistant chief constable consists of crossed tipstaves within
8988-402: The rank of commander exists as kommandørkaptajn (commander captain or commanding captain), which is senior to orlogskaptajn (captain) and kommandør (commander), which is senior to kommandørkaptajn . Kommandørkaptajn is officially translated into English as "Commander, Senior Grade", while orlogskaptajn is officially translated as '"Commander." A commander in the Royal Navy
9095-473: The recognition they deserve for breaking Japanese codes and cyphers . Government Code and Cypher School Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom . Primarily based at " The Doughnut " in
9202-490: The report was sent directly to the White House Situation Room, providing initial indications of Soviet intentions with regards the US naval blockade of Cuba. Duncan Campbell and Mark Hosenball revealed the existence of GCHQ in 1976 in an article for Time Out ; as a result, Hosenball was deported from the UK. GCHQ had a very low profile in the media until 1983 when the trial of Geoffrey Prime ,
9309-466: The run-up to the 2003 Iraq war . GCHQ gains its intelligence by monitoring a wide variety of communications and other electronic signals. For this, a number of stations have been established in the UK and overseas. The listening stations are at Cheltenham itself, Bude , Scarborough , Ascension Island , and with the United States at Menwith Hill . Ayios Nikolaos Station in Cyprus is run by
9416-728: The signal intercept networks of the GC&;CS and the US National Security Agency (NSA). Equipment used to break enemy codes included the Colossus computer . Colossus consisted of ten networked computers. An outstation in the Far East, the Far East Combined Bureau , was set up in Hong Kong in 1935 and moved to Singapore in 1939. Subsequently, with the Japanese advance down the Malay Peninsula,
9523-628: The strongest Japanese signals received. In addition, FRUMEL – the US-Australian-British unit based in Melbourne that replaced CAST – was reluctant to exchange material. The American commander Rudolph Fabian was a difficult man to work with, was prejudiced against the British and had a personality clash with Eric Nave (although Nave was Australian, he was a Royal Navy officer). There were also complaints about Fabian and FRUMEL from MacArthur's headquarters, although MacArthur
9630-544: The suburbs of Cheltenham , GCHQ is the responsibility of the country's Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Foreign Secretary), but it is not a part of the Foreign Office and its director ranks as a Permanent Secretary . GCHQ was originally established after the First World War as the Government Code and Cypher School ( GC&CS ) and was known under that name until 1946. During
9737-478: The summit via keyloggers that had been installed during the summit. According to Edward Snowden, at that time GCHQ had two principal umbrella programs for collecting communications: GCHQ has also had access to the US internet monitoring programme PRISM from at least as far back as June 2010. PRISM is said to give the National Security Agency and FBI easy access to the systems of nine of
9844-468: The term "commander" is applied officially to the commanding officer of a Space Force unit; hence, there are squadron commanders, delta commanders, and commanders of field commands . In rank, a squadron commander is a lieutenant colonel , a delta commander is a colonel , and the commander of a field command is a major general or lieutenant general . In NASA spacecraft missions since the beginning of Project Gemini , one crew member on each spacecraft
9951-410: The term "commander" is officially applied to the commanding officer of army units; hence, there are company commanders , battalion commanders , brigade commanders , and so forth. At the highest levels of U.S. military command structure, "commander" also refers to what used to be called commander-in-chief , or CINC, until October 24, 2002, although the term CINC is still used in casual speech. In
10058-472: The term "master and commander" remained (unofficially) in common parlance for several years. The equivalent American rank master commandant remained in use until changed to commander in 1838. A corresponding rank in some navies is frigate captain . In the 20th and 21st centuries, the rank has been assigned the NATO rank code of OF-4. Various functions of commanding officers were also styled commander . In
10165-826: The title as a rank lives on in the Royal Netherlands Navy , as the equivalent of commodore . In the Royal Netherlands Air Force , however, this rank is known by the English spelling of commodore which is the Dutch equivalent of the British air commodore . The rank of commander in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is identical in description to that of a commander in the British Royal Navy . RAN chaplains who are in divisions 1, 2 or 3 (of five divisions) have
10272-488: The twelve geographical Basic Command Units are referred to as "BCU commander". However, the officers do not hold the rank of commander but instead hold the rank of chief superintendent. Prior to organisational change merging boroughs in to BCUs, officers in charge of policing each of the London's boroughs were given the title "borough commander". A previous exception to this was the borough commander of Westminster , who held
10379-513: The world's top internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, and Skype. From 2013, GCHQ realised that public attitudes to Sigint had changed and its former unquestioned secrecy was no longer appropriate or acceptable. The growing use of the Internet, together with its inherent insecurities, meant that the communications traffic of private citizens were becoming inextricably mixed with those of their targets and openness in
10486-593: The world. In the same month NBC and The Intercept , based on documents released by Snowden, revealed the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group and the Computer Network Exploitation units within GCHQ. Their mission was cyber operations based on "dirty tricks" to shut down enemy communications, discredit, and plant misinformation on enemies. These operations were 5% of all GCHQ operations according to
10593-444: Was "either (a) a web browsing profile for every visible user on the internet, or (b) a user profile for every visible website on the internet." In 2015, GCHQ admitted for the first time in court that it conducts computer hacking. In 2017, US Press Secretary Sean Spicer made allegations that GCHQ had conducted surveillance on US President Donald Trump . These unfounded claims were based on statements made during an opinion piece in
10700-430: Was "to advise as to the security of codes and cyphers used by all Government departments and to assist in their provision", but also had a secret directive to "study the methods of cypher communications used by foreign powers". GC&CS officially formed on 1 November 1919, and produced its first decrypt prior to that date, on 19 October. Before the Second World War, GC&CS was a relatively small department. By 1922,
10807-578: Was a Royal Navy codebreaker at the FECB on Hong Kong and then Singapore. He founded the FECB, and headed the diplomatic section. His rank was Paymaster Captain, later Lieutenant Commander. When a RN language student in Japan in the 1920s, he achieved 810 out of 1000 (81%) in a test at the British Embassy ( Eric Nave got 910) Smith wrote that: Only now are the British codebreakers (like John Tiltman , Hugh Foss and Eric Nave ) beginning to receive
10914-409: Was designed by Gensler and constructed by Carillion , became the base for all of GCHQ's Cheltenham operations. The public spotlight fell on GCHQ in late 2003 and early 2004 following the sacking of Katharine Gun after she leaked to The Observer a confidential email from agents at the United States' National Security Agency addressed to GCHQ officers about the wiretapping of UN delegates in
11021-627: Was headed by the Chief of Intelligence Staff (COIS) Captain John Waller, later by Captain F. J. Wylie. Shaw had been dealing direct with GC&CS and the C-in-C Far East in Shanghai , but found that Waller expected that everything should go through him, and paid little regard to keeping sources secret. So by 1936 the two most senior naval officers were barely on speaking terms. Colonel Valentine Burkhart found when he arrived in 1936 that
11128-529: Was introduced on 1 December 1940, but was broken immediately as the additives were not changed. There was interchange with Station CAST at Corregidor , which was better placed to intercept IJN messages, as FECB could only receive the Combined Fleet in home waters at night. FECB also collaborated with the US Army Station 6 intercept site at Fort McKinley near Manila . FECB was sent one of
11235-507: Was located in an office block in the Naval dockyard , with an armed guard at the door (which negated any attempt at secrecy). The intercept site was on Stonecutters Island , four miles across the harbour, and manned by a dozen RAF and RN ratings (plus later four Army signallers). The codebreaking or Y section had Japanese , Chinese and Russian interpreters, under RN Paymaster Henry (Harry) Shaw, with Dick Thatcher and Neil Barnham. The FECB
11342-695: Was not particularly concerned (see also Central Bureau ). But in September 1942 Kilindini was able to break the Japanese Merchant Shipping Code ( JN-40 ), because a message was sent twice with extra data. It was a transposition cypher, not a super-enciphered code like JN-25. They also broke JN-152 a simple transposition and substitution cypher for navigation warnings and the previously impenetrable JN-167, another merchant shipping cypher. These successes enabled Allied forces e.g. submarines to attack Japanese supply ships, and resulted in
11449-487: Was set up to attack Japanese commercial systems and so to track supply convoys. From 1936 many messages were sent back to London, to be deciphered by John Tiltman , who broke the first version of JN-25 in 1939. In August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war with Germany, the FECB moved to Singapore on HMS Birmingham for fear of Japanese attack. A skeleton staff of a codebreaker (Alf Bennett) and four intercept operators were left at Hong Kong, and they were captured by
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