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103. The air transport force has borne the brunt of the reductions,
on the assumption that fewer transport taske will remain after the
Defence Review. The strategic transport force has been more than halved, and the 12 Andover tactical transports withdrawn altogether. The residual force could still meet some peacetime and contingency needs (e.g. the quadripartite Berlin airlift plan which requires 43 Strategic transport aircraft); support the wartime deployment and dispersal of units within the UK and to the Central Region; and fulfil possible tactical requirements in Europe. It would also be capable of deploying, (but not simultaneously), the AMT and a brigade group size force, together with offensive air and tactical
air transport elements, to the Northern and Central Regions. The
support helicopter force has been reduced by 25%. A total of some
117 aircraft would thus have been removed from the front line by
1979. By 1964 the reduction would become marginally greater at 122,
mainly as a result of an assumed revision in the rate of delivery
of the RCA. These reductions would be accompanied by still larger reductions of about 140 in training, communications and miscellaneous
aircraft. Service and civilian manpower would as a result of all
the measures proposed, be reduced by about 17%. Details of the
resulting force strengths compared with those planned in LTC 74 are
set out in Appendix 3 to Annex L.
104. Support. The complexity of the support area is such that time,
and lack of detail on the precise size and shape of the planned force strengths, do not permit a detailed exposure at this stage of where
and how cuts would be made in support. Cuts in this area have
therefore had to be assessed largely on an arbitrary basis.
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They