CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTTAL
(c)
(a)
(e)
to earmark some additional aircraft to Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT)/CINCHAN for reconnaissance;
as part of national deployments to participate in
periodic NATO maritime exercises and in the NATO Nav:1
On-Call Force in the Mediterranean;
to continue reinforcement options for the Special
Air Service Regiment in the Southern Region of Allied
Command Europe.
32. The Government is prepared on the same understanding and without commitment, to study nationally and within the Alliance other measures
aimed at mitigating the effects of our reductions. Our ability to imple-
ment the measures which our Allies wish us to adopt will depend particulary
on their willingness to give us assistance, eg with "host nation"
facilities for ships, men and aircraft. Decisions on these further
measures will be announced, where appropriate, as they are taken.
NON-NATO COMMITMENTS
33. At the beginning of 1975 Britain still maintained forces in
various parts of the world (see Annex C
deployment of UK forces in early 1975).
for a map showing the
Some of these deployments
reflect inescapable obligations, notably to the security of our
dependent territories; others reflect former aspirations to a world-wide
role. They absorbed a comparatively small proportion of the defence budget:
withdrawal from all of them, including the garrisons in the
Mediterranean, would save £150 million a year at most. But this
represented a significant sum in terms of the savings which would
qtherwise have had to be found exclusively from our higher priority
Consequently, we proposed to withdraw from our non
NATO tasks.
I-17 CONFIDENTIAL