On direction from the Defence Management Board (DMB), the British Defence Staff (Washington) announces that it will change its name to British Defence Staff-United States abbreviated BDS-US with effect from 1 Mar 2007

Evolutionary vs. Revolutionary

The old title BDS(W), was misleading. Although core staff will remain based in the British Embassy in Washington DC, we are engaged with US Department of Defense (DoD) establishments and contractors across the US and have staff based in 34 US States, including a network of exchange and liaison officers working side by side with their American counterparts .

The name change will reinforce BDS-US’s identity as the MOD’s voice in America.  It will give better recognition to the work of BDS personnel based outside Washington, DC and emphasises that they will continue to receive the administrative support they are entitled to.

This transformation is a logical evolution of BDS, it recognises that we have been entrusted by the DMB with the collective oversight of the bilateral defence relationship with the US including related MOD activity.  In this we will report to VCDS (in full) and 2nd PUS (in full) on the DMB through the Policy Director. 

BDS-US is committed to providing an excellent service to our stakeholders. We look forward to utilising of our collective presence, including Exchange and Liaison Officers, thereby making maximum use of our team in engaging with the US Defense community. This will ensure that we can most effectively and efficiently preserve and enhance this unique defence and security relationship.
BDS-US will focus on:

1. Providing the collective oversight of the bilateral UK/US defence relationship in accordance with direction from UK policy leads;
   
   
2. Developing, with the Centre, an integrated engagement strategy for UK interaction with the US. Providing the initial point of contact and exercising coordinating authority and management of all MOD stakeholders’ engagement with US ;
   
   
3. Ensuring that these activities are coherent, provide value-for-money, and are consistent with the Foreign Commonwealth Office and other government departments’ wider engagement strategies.

Visible changes will be seen with the re-launch of the BDS web site utilizing the address http://www.bdsus.mod.uk for the WWW and http://www.bdsus.r.mil.uk on the RLI. This will also coincide with the re-launch of BDS’s online publication AM WATCH which provides commentary on significant events within the US
defence and security arena and expert insight into how they affect UK interests.