Unified Intelligence Taskforce The Unified Intelligence Taskforce — formerly known as the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce , alternately as the United Intelligence Taskforce , ( AUDIO : " The Dalek Transaction " ) and more usually called UNIT — was a military organisation which operated under the auspices of the United Nations . Its remit was to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth . UNIT was not the only alien defence organisation , but it was the one with which the Doctor had the closest personal involvement . History . Roots and predecessors . An early 20th century counterpart to UNIT was LONGBOW . This world security organisation was set up by the UN precursor , the . LONGBOW dealt with the occasional extraterrestrial incident , but was disbanded after the League and it failed to prevent World War II . ( PROSE : " Just War " ) The roots of UNIT itself , however , lay in later alien encounters . The Intrusion Countermeasures Group headed by Group Captain Ian Gilmore , which got involved in the Shoreditch Incident , served as a specialised military force with scientific assistance would seem almost a trial run for UNIT , though not an international organisation . Though Gilmore did have two scientific advisors serving much as the third incarnation of the Doctor and Dr Elizabeth " Liz " Shaw would later , the seventh incarnation of the Doctor did most of the work on the technical end . ( TV : " Remembrance of the Daleks " , PROSE : " Who Killed Kennedy " ) An incident which led directly to the creation of UNIT was the takeover of London by the Great Intelligence , with robot Yeti s and a deadly cobweb - like fungus . Assisted by the Second Doctor , another group of British infantrymen , led by then - Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge - Stewart , beat back the Yeti from the tunnels of the London Underground . ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) 20th century . Early history . Formation . The United Nations were aware the world faced threats from extraterrestrial sources . As space programmes sent probes deeper and deeper into space , mankind was drawing attention to itself . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) Unable to get the British government to form a permanent special operations force for alien threats , Lethbridge - Stewart went over their heads to the UN Security Council , who proved more receptive . ( PROSE : " Who Killed Kennedy " ) The UN established UNIT with the mandate to investigate , monitor and combat such threats . At the suggestion of Gilmore from the ICMG , ( PROSE : " The Scales of Injustice " ) Lethbridge - Stewart was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and put in charge of the British contingent . ( TV : " The Invasion " ) This contingent was organisationally known as Department C19 within the British government . Alistair Gordon Lethbridge - Stewart . One of UNIT ' s first missions was an intensive investigation of International Electromatics , which turned violent . UNIT agents were killed and UNIT launched a helicopter raid to liberate prisoners at an Electromatics ' facility . With the help , again , of the Second Doctor , UNIT discovered the company was a front for a Cybermen invasion , and was able to defend against it . ( TV : " The Invasion " ) Lethbridge - Stewart became convinced of the necessity of scientific advice in battling extraterrestrial threats . He recruited Liz Shaw from the University of Cambridge . Around that same time , the Third Doctor had been exiled to Earth by the Time Lord s . He agreed to join UNIT as its scientific advisor just in time to help defeat the Nestene Consciousness ' invasion of Earth using its Auton s in an attack on the Auto Plastics factory . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) The Doctor continued to assist UNIT . In Wenley Moor , UNIT soldiers guarded the cave entrances to prevent the Silurian s from getting out . Against the Doctor ' s wishes , the Brigadier ordered Corporal Nutting to blow up the Silurian base beneath Wenley Moor , permanently sealing the base off . ( TV : " Doctor Who and the Silurians " ) While the third and eleventh incarnations of the Doctor stated in some accounts that this tribe had all died , ( TV : " Doctor Who and the Silurians " , " Cold Blood " ) according to another account , the Third Doctor said they were only entombed . ( PROSE : " The Scales of Injustice " ) UNIT also encountered the Primord s . ( TV : " Inferno " ) UNIT troops led by Sergeant Benton successfully fought off a fleet of Silurians on the Kent coast , while troops led by the Brigadier rescued the Doctor and Sergeant Mike Yates from a splinter group of C19 in Northumberland . After this , Liz Shaw left UNIT . ( PROSE : " The Scales of Injustice " ) The Doctor gained a new assistant in Jo Grant . Not a scientist , Jo had only managed to take science up to A level , of which she later stated , " I never said I passed " . As Jo began assisting the Doctor , UNIT met and made an enemy out of another Time Lord — . ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " ) UNIT eventually caught and imprisoned him after several attempts to destroy Earth . ( TV : " The Dæmons " ) When the Doctor ' s exile was ended , ( TV : " The Three Doctors " ) his association with UNIT became more sporadic , especially after his regeneration into his fourth incarnation . ( TV : " Planet of the Spiders " , " Robot " , " Pyramids of Mars " ) The Doctor did return to Earth with Sarah Jane Smith , but would work less with the Brigadier and more with such other officers as Colonel Faraday ( the Brigadier having gone to Geneva ) ( TV : " The Android Invasion " ) and Major Beresford . ( TV : " The Seeds of Doom " ) The Doctor , however , never officially left UNIT . ( TV : " The Sontaran Stratagem " ) As a United Nations group , UNIT often served as security at peace conferences , ( TV : " Day of the Daleks " , " The Mind of Evil " ) and the British contingent had foreign soldiers such as Sergeant Zbrigniev . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) UNIT often faced hostility to its operations when investigating research facilities and companies . A common tactic against them was an appeal to any contacts in the Westminster government . These forced Lethbridge - Stewart either to back down or go over the government ' s heads to Geneva . ( TV : " The Invasion " , " The Green Death " , " The Claws of Axos " ) After Lethbridge - Stewart . Lethbridge - Stewart retire d in 1976 to teach mathematics at Brendon Public School . His successor was Colonel Charles Crichton . ( TV : " The Five Doctors " ) Benton and medical officer Harry Sullivan also left . ( TV : " Mawdryn Undead " ) Colonel Lafayette was briefly in charge of UNIT , before being killed by the Skyheads . He was replaced by Wyland - Jones . ( AUDIO : " Dominion " ) In the 1990s , Iris Wildthyme worked part - time as UNIT ' s special scientific advisor . ( PROSE : " Interference - Book Two " , " Bullet Time " ) In 1997 , the Doctor re - united with UNIT in his seventh incarnation against an invasion by Morgaine and her armoured knights . The British contingent was commanded by a new , female brigadier Winifred Bambera . Lethbridge - Stewart was called out of retirement to assist them . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) The Seventh Doctor would help UNIT officer Muriel Frost in the late 1990s in their struggle against the Mandragora Helix . ( COMIC : " The Mark of Mandragora " , " Evening ' s Empire " ) At some point in the late 20th or early 21st century , Sarah Jane Smith published the book " UNIT Fighting for Humankind " about the history of UNIT . ( TV : " Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane ? " ) The 21st century . 2000s . General trends . In the name of " homeworld security " , UNIT adopted a controversial attitude towards and which the Tenth Doctor found disquieting . ( TV : " The Sontaran Stratagem " ) UNIT maintained a secret prison . Detainees could be held without charges being pressed or without the usual rights of prisoners . This suggested UNIT had a more malevolent side than other recorded encounters may suggest . Among those kept at one time as a prisoner by UNIT was Toshiko Sato in 2005 or 2006 ; she was only released when Jack Harkness and Torchwood Three convinced her to work for them . ( TV : " Fragments " ) In the late 20th and early 21st centuries , UNIT maintained a small division based in the United States , led by Brigadier General Adrienne Kramer . ( PROSE : " Vampire Science " ) At sometime prior to the 2009 Sontaran invasion , UNIT changed its name from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce to Unified Intelligence Taskforce . UNIT retained its traditional logos , even though they displayed the now - technically incorrect initialization " U . N . I . T . " ( TV : " The Sontaran Stratagem " ) Specific events . At some point , the UK division of UNIT faced being shut down and replaced with domestic group ICIS ( Internal Counter - Intelligence Service ) . When it became clear ICIS were brutal and dangerous , Lethbridge - Stewart and Colonel Emily Chaudhry deliberately revealed UNIT ' s remit to the press ( stating UNIT had faced over two hundred invasions ) and the existence of Silurian ambassadors . This was viewed as a hoax , but it forced the government to leave UNIT in charge of alien matters , leading to uneasy co - existence with ICIS . ( AUDIO : " The Coup " ) Unknown to UNIT , their leader , Colonel Brimmicombe - Wood , was an ICIS plant who had been groomed to assume leadership of their rival . ( AUDIO : " The Wasting " ) ICIS ' involvement in an attempted coup ( AUDIO : " The Longest Night " ) and murderous attempts at framing UNIT led to their shutdown ; UNIT thwarted the coup and stopped a worldwide pandemic , unfortunately losing temporary commander Colonel Robert Dalton in the process . Colonel Chaudry was given command of the UK contingent . ( AUDIO : " The Wasting " ) The position was later handed to Colonel Mace under unknown circumstances In 2006 , UNIT sent a delegation to a gathering of experts to 10 Downing Street in response to a spaceship crash in the River Thames . All of the experts were electrocuted by the Slitheen family . ( TV : " Aliens of London " ) By this time , UNIT and the Torchwood Institute were aware of each other . ( TV : " Fragments " ) UNIT asked for the assistance of Torchwood Three ' s Owen Harper while the crashed ship ' s apparent pilot , dubbed the Space Pig , was taken to Albion Hospital . Toshiko Sato filled in for Owen for the assignment . ( TV : " Aliens of London " , " Exit Wounds " ) In 2006 , a group of at least three Groske were stranded on Earth . UNIT found and recruited them . ( TV : " Death of the Doctor " ) In Christmas 2006 , UNIT had a command centre in the Tower of London under the command of Major Blake . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " ) UNIT maintained contact with Torchwood Three , even after the Battle of Canary Wharf . Torchwood Three ' s leader , Jack Harkness , would occasionally confer with the heads of UNIT and once asked for and received the help of Martha Jones , a medical doctor and former companion of the Tenth Doctor ' s , whom he and the Doctor had suggested for a position with UNIT . ( TV : " Reset " ) By 2008 , UNIT operated an aircraft carrier airship , the " Valiant " , which was mainly designed by British Minister of Defence Harold Saxon , who was in fact . ( TV : " The Sound of Drums " / " Last of the Time Lords " ) In early 2008 , when the Cardiff Space - Time Rift fractured resulting in time slips across the world , UNIT was one of several organisations that noticed the strange appearances that were occurring worldwide and asked if it had anything to do with Torchwood . ( TV : " End of Days " ) Sarah Jane Smith remained in friendly contact with UNIT , leading to its involvement in cleaning up a Slitheen plot . ( TV : " Revenge of the Slitheen " ) Her status as one of the Doctor ' s companions during his time as their Scientific Advisor seemed to have given her some pull ; Sarah Jane said mentioning her name would ensure good pay . ( TV : " The Man Who Never Was " ) Prior to the 2009 Sontaran invasion , Martha Jones , an ex - companion of the Tenth Doctor was tasked with alerting him about it when the preparations for the invasion were discovered . ( TV : " The Sontaran Stratagem " ) Apparently , now - Sir Alistair Lethbridge - Stewart still had some involvement with UNIT at this time , though he had gone to Peru for undisclosed reasons . ( TV : " The Poison Sky " ) Following the defeat of the Sontarans , UNIT began reverse - engineering technology scavenged from the aliens , and launched Project Indigo to create a backpack - sized teleportation device . Jones was seconded as medical advisor for the project ( it was top secret , although Harkness found out about it ) , and stationed at UNIT ' s base in New York City . ( TV : " The Stolen Earth " ) UNIT also developed a contingency plan called the Osterhagen Project ; in the event of global conquest that seemed unending , any three out of five UNIT facilities would end humanity ' s suffering by destroying the planet with nuclear weaponry under Earth ' s crust . ( TV : " Journey ' s End " ) Following the relocation of the Earth and 26 other planets to the Medusa Cascade , UNIT went on high alert , and then a war footing as the Dalek invasion began . Both the " Valiant " and the New York headquarters were overrun by Daleks and destroyed , and the United Nations surrendered soon after . Martha Jones escaped using the Project Indigo device , maintaining possession of an Osterhagen key in the process . ( TV : " The Stolen Earth " ) She reached the Osterhagen Station in Germany . The Chinese and Liberia n stations had been already activated . She was teleported away by the Daleks before the bombs could be triggered . The Doctor later asked her to have the Project dismantled . ( TV : " Journey ' s End " ) UNIT and Torchwood made a joint effort to investigate the voices coming from the Mariana Trench . UNIT supplied the submarine , the " Octopus Rock " , and the ship to transport it , the USS " Calvin " . ( AUDIO : " Submission " ) During Easter 2009 UNIT was called out to a tunnel near Brixton after a bus carrying the Tenth Doctor and other passengers had gone through a wormhole . The Doctor contacted the senior officer on site , Captain Erisa Magambo and also spoke with their scientific adviser Professor Malcolm Taylor . He managed to get the bus back to its original location but the Swarm arrived on Earth . Magambo and UNIT fought the stingrays . The Doctor recommended to Magambo that there might be two more potential UNIT recruits from the bus , namely Barclay and Nathan . ( TV : " Planet of the Dead " ) In September 2009 , UNIT investigated when every child in the world stopped , which was a prelude to the return of the 456 . Colonel Augustus Oduya met with civil servant John Frobisher and showed him locations of children who had stopped all over the world , announcing his suspicions of an alien invasion . He correctly deduce d that if UNIT had pieced the situation together , then Torchwood Three also must have . ( TV : " " ) Arriving at Downing Street to witness the 456 ' s first contact , Oduya wanted UNIT to be involved in the handling the incident . ( TV : " " ) After Frobisher killed himself , Colonel Oduya was selected to continue negotiations with the 456 , and UNIT soldiers entered Floor 13 . Oduya asked — not as a representative but as a father — what the 456 would do to the children once they were handed over . Upon receiving the reply that the children would essentially be used for drug s , he was clearly horrified . Oduya was present when the the 456 Ambassador was killed due to the actions of Jack Harkness which saved the Earth . ( TV : " " ) When the Master turned every human into a copy of him on Christmas Day 2009 , UNIT came under his command . When the Tenth Doctor piloted the Hesperus to Joshua Naismith ' s mansion the following morning , the Master Race - controlled UNIT fired missiles at the Doctor . Wilfred Mott and Rossiter the Vinvocci destroyed them . When Rassilon and his Time Lord guard arrived at the mansion , his first act was to reverse the Master race back to their human forms . ( TV : " The End of Time " ) 2010s . On 4 May 2010 , after the Eleventh Doctor had destroyed an awaking Cyberman army , he predicted that a lot of questions would be asked by UNIT . He advised Chisholm to simply mention his name . ( GAME : " Blood of the Cybermen " ) In 2010 the Skith attacked a UNIT base at the bottom of the sea near Sydney . ( COMIC : " The Age of Ice " ) Later that year , rogue Colonel Tia Karim leagued with Claw Shansheeth to gain the Doctor ' s TARDIS . They created a ruse that the Eleventh Doctor had died and prepared his funeral in UNIT Base 5 so they could drain the life force of Sarah Jane Smith and Josephine Jones through their memories of the Doctor . They attached them to the memory weave and began the process to conjure a TARDIS key . The machine was overloaded by the many memories of Jo and Sarah Jane and it self - destructed , killing the group . ( TV : " Death of the Doctor " ) In 2011 , after the Miracle Day phenomenon was negated , UNIT sealed off the Blessing . ( TV : " The Blood Line " ) After Kate Stewart became head of scientific research , UNIT took in Shakri cube s and experimented on them ; they subjected them to temperatures from - 200 to 200 degrees Celsius , simulated a water depth of five miles , dropped one out of a helicopter at 10 , 000 feet and rolled UNIT ' s best tank on one . The cubes were left intact . A year later , when the cubes activated and behaved unusually , several dozen were contained and examined in the Tower of London . Stewart called in the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond on the Doctor ' s psychic paper to look into this . ( TV : " The Power of Three " ) In 2013 , after the minds intended for the Great Intelligence were downloaded back into their bodies , UNIT took control of the Shard in London . They saw the workers ' " factory settings " from before the Intelligence took over restored , causing them to forget their work . ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) Later in 2013 , after figures from the Under - Gallery ' s stasis cube paintings had disappeared along with the glass of the paintings being smashed outwards , UNIT summoned the Eleventh Doctor under the instructions of Queen Elizabeth I from the 16th century . The figures in the paintings were actually Zygon s who hid themselves inside in 1562 while waiting for the Earth to become more suitable for invasion . UNIT had accidentally airlifted the TARDIS to the National Gallery not knowing the Doctor was still inside . The Zygons later took on the biological forms of Kate and UNIT scientists McGillop and Osgood and tried taking over the Black Archive . Trying to stop them , Kate set off the countdown for a nuclear warhead , which her duplicate was unable to cancel , but the Tenth , Eleventh and War Doctor s broke into the Black Archive , erasing the minds of the Zygons and the real Kate , McGillop and Osgood and making them forget which was " real " and allowing both Kates to agree to cancel the detonation . The Doctors refused to return the memories of the two parties until they agreed to a peace treaty . ( TV : " The Day of the Doctor " ) Twenty million Zygons were resettled in human form among the humans worldwide as part of Operation Double , a covert operation outside of UNIT ' s normal strictures . ( TV : " The Zygon Invasion " ) In 2014 , all UNIT troops were occupied with spiked headed robots that were emerging from the eruption at the El Hierro volcano . ( PROSE : " The Crawling Terror " ) In 2014 , prior to the month of August , UNIT assembled outside of the House of Commons to disintegrate a Kharitite that was feeding on the negative emotions inside the building and destroying it in the process . They threatened to disintegrate Alice Obiefune if she did not agree to step out of their line of fire , but the Eleventh Doctor arrived in time to stop them . When a walking squid exited the TARDIS , they initially believed the squid had either taken over the TARDIS or that the Doctor had regenerated into the creature . They planned to fire at it even if it was the Doctor . ( COMIC : " After Life " ) In late 2014 , UNIT helped the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald defeat the Fracture s . ( COMIC : " The Fractures " ) Shortly afterwards , UNIT investigated 3W , ( TV : " Death in Heaven " ) an organisation set up by one Dr Skarosa to create a place to house the consciousness of the deceased . Meanwhile , the Twelfth Doctor and Clara discovered 3W while searching for the recently deceased Danny Pink , and learnt the organisation ' s true nature as an operation manipulated by , who used a Matrix data slice to create the Nethersphere where the minds of the recently deceased would be uploaded and converted into an army of Cybermen . When the Cybermen emerged from 3W ' s base in St Paul ' s Cathedral , ( TV : " Dark Water " ) UNIT soon arrived on the scene led by Kate Stewart . Capturing both the Doctor and the Master , UNIT brought the two Time Lords aboard their presidential aircraft , Boat One , where the Doctor was met by Colonel Ahmed and inaugurated as an emergency President of Earth . At this time , cloud s appeared over the world ' s major cities , rain ing cyber - pollen on the graveyard s to convert the dead into Cybermen . These Cybermen , now possessing the ability to fly , attacked Boat One resulting in its destruction with all hands including Colonel Ahmed and Osgood with the Doctor and the Master escaping . Offered control of the Cybermen army by the Master , the Doctor refused to submit to her claim that he was like her , he handed it over to Danny Pink , who rallied all the Cybermen to self - destruct , taking the pollen clouds with them . However , one Cyberman remained , converted from the late Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart . Having rescued his daughter from the destruction of Boat One , he returned to the graveyard where he saved the Doctor the obligation of killing the Master . Receiving his wish of a salute from the Doctor , the Brigadier flew off . ( TV : " Death in Heaven " ) During the month when the Hyperions ruled Earth in the summer of 2015 , UNIT became a small resistance group led by Kate Stewart . The Twelfth Doctor provided them with alien weaponry to fight back against the Hyperions in London . ( COMIC : " The Hyperion Empire " ) Missy , having survived the Brigadier ' s blast , grabbed UNIT ' s attention by using a time stop to freeze every plane in the sky across the globe , so that she could discuss the Doctor ' s confession dial with Clara , with eight snipers sent to ensure Clara felt safe enough to talk to her . Later , UNIT ' s scientists used a computer algorithm to find anachronism s and " crisis points " revealing the location and time period of the Doctor ' s meditation on Earth prior to his demise . Missy then used her vortex manipulator to bring Clara to 1138 Essex . ( TV : " The Magician ' s Apprentice " ) UNIT ' s forces in the UK , along with a platoon in Turmezistan , were all killed by a radicalised faction of Zygons called Truth or Consequences after the peace treaty between humans and Zygons began breaking down . ( TV : " The Zygon Invasion " ) The ceasefire was later put back in place . ( TV : " The Zygon Inversion " ) Mayor Me considered her hidden trap street , which had existed in London for at least a century prior to Operation Double , to be a more favourable way of housing alien s on Earth as opposed to the settling of the Zygons amongst humanity . Later , in a desperate gambit to prevent Clara Oswald from sacrificing herself , the Twelfth Doctor threatened Me to relinquish the Quantum Shade on Clara or he would expose her trap street and bring UNIT and the Zygons down on it . ( TV : " Face the Raven " ) In 2016 , UNIT cleaned up the mess left by the Transhuman Sisters of the Unholy Plentitude after they tried to kill . ( AUDIO : " And You Will Obey Me " ) In 2016 , a UNIT team was brought in to take away Garry Fletcher ' s alien body - swapping technology . ( PROSE : " Joyride " ) Andrea Quill was aware of UNIT and asked Dorothea Ames if she was affiliated with them . Dorothea replied that who she represented were " far more modest than that . " ( TV : " Brave - ish Heart " ) After foiling the Shoal of the Winter Harmony ' s plot to take over Earth using the corporation Harmony Shoal as a front , the Twelfth Doctor tipped UNIT off to their existence . Refusing to accept defeat , however , Harmony Shoal vowed revenge and secretly infiltrated the UNIT team sent to close their head office in New York . ( TV : " The Return of Doctor Mysterio " ) 2040s . By 2040 , UNIT was a shadow of its former self . ( PROSE : " The Baron Wastes " ) Beyond the 21st century . UNIT still existed in 2119 . Alice O ' Donnell was a fan of their work , and was familiar with the Doctor ' s association with the group , and Mason Bennett wanted to work for them . ( TV : " Under the Lake " ) The Doctor still had ties with them , and the Twelfth Doctor assured Clara Oswald that they would cut out the Faraday cage from the Drum and take it into space . ( TV : " Before the Flood " ) Following human expansion into the galaxy , UNIT evolved into the Foreign Hazard Duty . ( COMIC : " The Mark of Mandragora " , " Echoes of the Mogor ! " ) By the 26th century , UNIT had become a secret society called the Unitatus . ( PROSE : " Cold Fusion " ) Unitatus survived at least until the 30th century . ( PROSE : " So Vile a Sin " ) United Galactic Intelligence Taskforce ( UGIT ) was another of UNIT ' s successor organisations . ( AUDIO : " Council of War " ) Headquarters and command centres . UNIT had a command centre in the cargo hold of a C - 130 Hercules military transport aircraft and could use the plane itself as a mobile base . ( TV : " The Invasion " ) The British branch of UNIT later operated out of an office building in London ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) . It also maintained a mobile headquarters in the form of a large bus - like vehicle that could be driven to the site of an incident . ( TV : " The Dæmons " ) The HQ subsequently moved a number of times , finally settling in a building in the country that had been built over the ruins of a priory . ( TV : " Pyramids of Mars " ) From late 2006 , UNIT had a base in the Tower of London . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " ) From around 2008 on , UNIT possessed at least two flying carrier ships , the " Valiant " ( TV : " The Sound of Drums " ) and the " Starling " , ( COMIC : " The Age of Ice " ) which could be used as bases . The " Valiant " was destroyed in the 2009 Dalek invasion , ( TV : " The Stolen Earth " ) but was rebuilt or replaced by a ship of the same name by the time of the 3W incident . ( TV : " Death in Heaven " ) Branches outside of Great Britain . UNIT Central Control was in Geneva , Switzerland . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " , et . al . ) Martha Jones was briefly attached to Geneva when UNIT was tasked with handling security for the CERN project ( AUDIO : " Lost Souls " ) The French division of UNIT was known as NUIT ( or Nations Unies Intelligence Taskforce ) . ( PROSE : " The Dying Days " ) The Russia n division was named ОГРОН or OGRON . This stood for Operativnaya Gruppa Rasvedkoy Obyedinyonnih Natsiy , which roughly translated as United Nations Reconnaissance Operations Group . ( PROSE : " Emotional Chemistry " ) South - East Asia possessed a multi - national UNIT contingent , UNIT - SEA , headquartered in Singapore . ( PROSE : " Bullet Time " ) UNIT had a Japan ese division by 2010 . ( COMIC : " The Golden Ones " ) Kriegeskind Castle in West Germany was converted into a UNIT base when the organisation was formed , serving as both a research centre and military outpost . It was destroyed following a paranormal outbreak . ( AUDIO : " Old Soldiers " ) UNIT had Osterhagen Stations in Germany , Argentina , Liberia and China . ( TV : " Journey ' s End " ) UNIT had a branch in North America . ( AUDIO : " The Dalek Transaction " ) By 2009 , New York City had a UNIT base , carrying out projects like Project Indigo . The base was later heavily damaged , if not destroyed , by the Dalek s . ( TV : " The Stolen Earth " ) Australia ' s UNIT base was underwater , in the Sydney harbour ; it contained a museum of alien relics . In 2010 it came under attack by the Skith . ( COMIC : " The Age of Ice " ) Rivals . One division within the Central Intelligence Agency headed by a man known only as Control was a rival of sorts to UNIT . ( PROSE : " The Devil Goblins from Neptune " ) A few years later , another American , Bill Filer , worked on friendly terms with UNIT . ( TV : " The Claws of Axos " ) In Britain , UNIT would come into conflict with a domestic anti - alien agency named ICIS ( Internal Counter - Intelligence Service ) , who had a nationalist agenda . ( AUDIO : " The Wasting " ) While not running into conflict with them , they were viewed with contempt by both the Forge , ( AUDIO : " Project : Twilight " ) and MI6 . Under Director Woodrow , MI6 became aware of an alien incursion in London , but deliberately did not mention it to UNIT and tried to handle the situation themselves ; this led to the agency being massacred by Cybermen and an unprepared Earth being assaulted . ( COMIC : " The Flood " ) An internal conspiracy within UNIT , the Cortez Project , attempted to massacre " any " alien , hostile or not , that arrived on Earth . Its existence was exposed in 1997 , and UNIT began hunting down its cells . ( PROSE : " Bullet Time " ) Organisation . UNIT ' s status was supported by enabling legislation that allowed it to assume emergency powers when necessary . Although it operated under the authority of the United Nations , its members were seconded from the host country ' s military and were still bound to obey that chain of command . Lethbridge - Stewart , for example , reported to the Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister . ( TV : " Terror of the Zygons " ) However , when such orders conflicted , appeals could be made to Geneva . The Enabling Act s helped establishing jurisdictional guidelines : article 17 of the Third Enabling Act set up Geneva ' s role , while article 18 was " Matters of Domestic Concern " and stated in such cases , UNIT " will place itself at the disposal of the host nation in all respects " . ( TV : " The Time Monster " , " The Green Death " ) Due to the international nature of the organisation , it was viewed with suspicion by local military and national security agencies , who felt that it might impinge on their sovereignty . UNIT ' s existence was known to the public , but mainly as a security organisation ; its actual agenda was classified . In the United Kingdom , its secrecy was guaranteed by the Official Secrets Act . ( TV : " The Time Monster " onwards ) Some believed it to be a kind of covert counter - terrorist unit . Despite the change of name to the Unified Intelligence Taskforce , the United Nations commanded and funded UNIT . ( TV : " The Sontaran Stratagem " / " The Poison Sky " , " " ) Equipment and uniforms . Equipment . Its personnel had a wide range of weaponry to call on , some custom - made to combat specific threats . Standard weaponry of UNIT in the early 21st century consisted of G36 and G36C assault rifles , M4A1 assault rifles , limited numbers of K23B - styled M4s seen in the episode , " The Poison Sky " . SIG - Sauer P226 pistols are seen as their main sidearm , as well as heavy weapons such as the FIM - 92A Stinger and the AT4 rocket launcher . The standard issue firearm in the 1970s was the L1A1 SLR , a British version of the FN FAL , which was the current rifle used by the British Army . In the late 1990s , UNIT troops were armed with the Steyr AUG assault rifles . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) As the Brigadier explained to the Doctor , these were armour - piercing munitions for use against robot s , explosive rounds for Yetis , silver - tipped rounds and gold - tipped rounds for use against Cybermen . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) UNIT had a laser rifle at its disposal to deal with a Krynoid , though the weapon did not manage to kill it . ( TV : " The Seeds of Doom " ) UNIT had access to the USS " Calvin " ( a ship ) and " Octopus Rock " ( an advanced deep - sea submarine ) . They also had experimental diving suits made of dwarf star alloy capable of surviving miles below the surface . ( AUDIO : " Submission " ) Uniforms . 20th century . Early in its history , UNIT troops and officers wore one - piece beige coveralls with a green / grey shirt and silver / green tie with sand - coloured berets not unlike the British Special Air Service . ( TV : " The Invasion " through TV : " Doctor Who and the Silurians " ) Apart from Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart , who retained his regular uniform , the exceptions to this were new futuristic - looking uniforms , which consisted of a zip - up jacket without lapels worn over a rolled - neck sweater , ( TV : " The Ambassadors of Death " ) and combat gear , as worn by the troops stationed at the Inferno Project in Eastchester . ( TV : " Inferno " ) They reverted to uniforms not unlike that worn by the British Army , but with the addition of UNIT badges . ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " through " The Seeds of Doom " ) In the 1990s they retained the standard military look , with the addition of a blue cap ( with blue representing the United Nations ) . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) 21st century . By 2006 , UNIT troops had adopted a paramilitary all - black look , with scarlet berets . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " ) Officers wore service dress ( such as British Army No . 2 Dress or US Army Class A ) . ( TV : " Fragments " , " The Sontaran Stratagem " , " The Stolen Earth " ) As an alternative , officers could wear a black version of service dress with the UNIT beret . ( TV : " Turn Left " ) By the time of Kate Stewart ' s leadership , troops wore black body armour with black helmets and tinted goggles . ( TV : " The Power of Three " ) Officers such as Colonel Ahmed wore a navy blue jacket with a white shirt and tie . ( TV : " Death in Heaven " ) Divisions . UNIT maintained a number of specialised departments . One , the Paranormal Division , in which Lieutenant Hamlet Macbeth investigated psychic power s and phenomena . ( PROSE : " The Left - Handed Hummingbird " ) UNIT Broadsword was UNIT ' s intelligence wing and Special Ops division . ( PROSE : " No Future " ) It also maintained the Warehouse , a place to store alien artefacts ; security breaches at this and similar facilities were handled by the Containment Team . ( HOMEVID : " Auton " ) Internal affairs were handled by the Internal Security Division . ( HOMEVID : " " ) UNIT also maintained a warehouse known as the Black Archive . ( TV : " Enemy of the Bane " ) Call signs . UNIT used a variety of call signs and code words for their agents . The most common call sign was Greyhound . By convention the senior officer ( usually Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart ) was Greyhound One ( TV : " Invasion of the Dinosaurs " ) or Greyhound Leader . Other Greyhounds included Mike Yates as Greyhound Two , ( TV : " The Dæmons " ) Martha Jones as Greyhound Six , and Ross Jenkins as Greyhound Forty . ( TV : " The Sontaran Stratagem " ) The commander of operations was often called Trap One , with both Lethbridge - Stewart ( TV : " Invasion of the Dinosaurs " ) and Colonel Mace ( TV : " The Sontaran Stratagem " ) using the call sign at times . An alternative term was Watchtower . ( TV : " Doctor Who and the Silurians " ) More unusual were the call signs used during the first World Peace Conference , which were based on planet s of the Sol system , with the Brigadier as Jupiter and Mike Yates as Venus . ( TV : " The Mind of Evil " ) Lieutenant Richards , commanding a missile convoy , was designated Salamander Six - Zero . Brigadier Bambera , in the same operation , was Seabird . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) Helicopter call signs included Windmill 347 , ( TV : " The Mind of Evil " ) Eagle ( TV : " The Green Death " ) and " Uniform November Nine - Zero " , ( TV : " Battlefield " ) whilst the " Valiant " was Hawk Major . ( TV : " The Poison Sky " ) . UNIT ' s call sign for the TARDIS was Blue Eagle . ( TV : " The Day of the Doctor " ) Alternate timeline versions . The Seventh Doctor visited one timeline in which human s had made peace with the Silurian s after the Wenley Moor affair . In this universe , United Races Intelligence Command or URIC had replaced UNIT . An alternative version of Muriel Frost headed the organisation , following the death of the Brigadier in a bomb attack ; this world ' s Doctor was killed in the same attack . ( COMIC : " Final Genesis " ) Another alternate outcome of the Wenley Moor incident saw the Silurians conquer Earth , with the remnants of UNIT fighting a vicious insurgency against them . ( PROSE : " Blood Heat " ) A deliberately altered timeline saw UNIT fighting a counter - insurgency against a British anarchist terrorist group named Black Star . A plain - clothes division named Broadsword had been created . ( PROSE : " No Future " ) In several possible timelines , UNIT was replaced further into the 21st century . In one , it was replaced by the more militant UNISYC ( United Nations Intelligence Security Yard Corps ) . ( PROSE : " Alien Bodies " ) In another , it was superseded by the global military PRISM . ( PROSE : " The Indestructible Man " ) UNIT in parallel worlds . The fascist Britain in a parallel universe the Third Doctor visited had its own version of UNIT : the Republican Security Forces . ( TV : " Inferno " ) In Donna ' s World , UNIT soldiers retrieved the dead body of the Tenth Doctor following the Christmas Star incident , and later a division of UNIT worked with Rose Tyler to reverse - engineer the TARDIS and allow Donna Noble to go back in time and make her younger self turn left instead of right at a junction . ( TV : " Turn Left " ) Behind the scenes . UNIT website . According to the tie - in website for UNIT , UNIT was formed " in response " to a series of London Underground incidents in 1968 , referring to the 1968 story TV : " The Web of Fear " . A press statement on the UNIT website that was embargoed until 31 January 2005 states their official position on 13 soldiers that died during manoeuvres investigating reports of " an extreme chemical pollution " in the area . A press statement embargoed until 31 March 2005 , predating UNIT New York City Base ' s appearance in " The Stolen Earth " , mentions UNIT having its New York City presence expanded by Major A Highway ' s " lead up " of UNIT ' s New York Liaison Office . Major A Highway also pays tribute to his predessor and " old friend " , Major C Jones , when she and her colleagues were lost during the Jersey Tollgate Situation . The UNIT website also showed that UNIT held at least four annual conferences , at least one of which was based in Maidstone Barracks in Kent . The 4th Annual conference on Threat Containment and Response had confirmed seminars such as " Looking upwards rather than outwards " , " Civillians [ sic ] and confusion " , " Extreme press relations " and " Alone in a crowd " .