The Defence Support Group (DSG) was an

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or No ...

and wholly owned trading fund of the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

in the United Kingdom. It was established on 1 April 2008 by the merger of the

Defence Aviation Repair Agency The Defence Aviation Repair Agency, better known as DARA, was an executive agency of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence, responsible for the maintenance and repair of Royal Air Force, Army and the Royal ...

and the

Army Base Repair Organisation The Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) was an executive agency which reported to the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. It provided engineering, repair and re-manufacturing services to the British Armed Forces and also to the police and som ...

. It was created under ''The Defence Support Group Trading Fund Order 2008''. Part of the group was sold to

Babcock International Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

on 31 March 2015, while the remainder became the

Defence Electronics and Components Agency DE&S Deca, formerly the Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA), is an operating centre within Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S). It was formed as an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence in April 2015 from the air division ...

(DECA) on 1 April 2015.

History

DSG employed about 3,500 staff, with its head office in

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

. Annual turnover was in excess of £200 million. The chief executive was Archie Hughes, formerly from the

. DSG offered maintenance, repair and overhaul of military air and land equipment, mobile and in-barracks equipment support, fleet management, calibration, electronics, components and logistic support. It was one of the largest defence engineering service providers in the UK. DSG undertook a partnership with both

Deeside College Coleg Cambria Deeside () is a campus of Coleg Cambria, a further education college, encompassing the grounds of the former Deeside College (), in Connah's Quay, Flintshire, North Wales. A technical school in Flintshire was first proposed and ...

and

Airbus UK Airbus UK (formerly EADS UK) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus, based in the United Kingdom, which produces wings for Airbus aircraft. When Airbus (at the time known as EADS) was incorporated as a joint-stock company in 2001, BAE Systems t ...

to train its aeronautical engineers based at

RAF Sealand MOD Sealand (formerly RAF Sealand), is a Ministry of Defence installation in Flintshire, in the northeast corner of Wales, close to the border with England. It was a Royal Air Force station, active between 1916 and 2006. Under defence cuts an ...

Sale

In October 2010 the government announced that DSG was to be sold off, along with other corporate assets, telecommunications spectrum and Marchwood Military Port. In November 2014,

was announced as the preferred buyer of DSG's land repair and maintenance business, and a sale for £140 million was reached in December 2014. The sale was completed on 1 April 2015. The remaining air division and the Electronics and Components business unit remained under MOD ownership, and on 1 April 2015 became the

Installations

The main sites were: *

Ashchurch Ashchurch is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ashchurch Rural, in the Tewkesbury district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England, east of the town of Tewkesbury, southwest of Evesham, north of Cheltenham, north-n ...

Bovington Bovington Camp () is a British Army military base in Dorset, South West England. Together with Lulworth Camp it forms part of Bovington Garrison. The garrison is home to The Armour Centre and contains two barracks complexes and two forest and ...

* Catterick *

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

* Donnington *

Sealand The Principality of Sealand () is a micronation on HM Fort Roughs (also known as Roughs Tower), an offshore platform in the North Sea. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately from the coast of Suffolk and from the coa ...

St Athan St Athan () is a village and community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales. The village and its parish church are dedicated to Saint Tathan. The church dates to the 13th–14th century, though an earlier church was dated t ...

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

Warminster Warminster () is a historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in south-west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of 18,173 in 2021. The name ''Warminster'' occurs first i ...

Smaller support sites were: *

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

Bicester Bicester ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of Oxfordshire, England, north-west of Oxford. The town is a notable tourist attraction due to the Bicester Village shopping centre. The historical town centre � ...

Sennybridge Sennybridge () is a village in Powys, Wales, in the historic county of Brecknockshire, situated some from Cardiff and from Swansea. It lies west of Brecon on the A40 trunk road to Llandovery, at the point where the Afon Senni flows into th ...

References

External links

*
Deeside College Press Release
{{Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom Privatised executive agencies of the United Kingdom government Defence agencies of the United Kingdom Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom Military logistics of the United Kingdom