SECRET
布政司署
EIVED
香港下亞畢道
REGISTRYN 52 - 4 JUN1975
*** Our Ref.: SCR 1/951/75
* YOUR Ref.:
Dear Laurence.
154
NICKCIO
160
COLONIAL SECRETÁRIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
23rd May, 1975
iwin
R&R
MADINITARY VI
2/6
We are
Thank you for your letter HKK 10/1 dated 23rd April, 1975. concerned at the Ministry of Defence response and, for reasons which I explain below, we still hold to the view that the U.K. Government should bear the cost of running the Tai Mo Shan radar until 31st March, 1976 under the existing Defence Costs Agreement.
Dealing with the question of range first. I do not know the source of the MOD view on additional range but my advice is that the Type 264 radar which serves Kai Tak has an effective range of only 80/85 miles, whereas the range of the Tai Mo Shan radar is in excess of 200 miles and up to 225 miles can be covered on our radar display equipment. If, therefore, the coverage provided by Tai Mo Shan were withdrawn the loss of coverage would be of the order of 120/140 miles and this would have a serious effect on Kai Tak operations in certain circumstances. It is possible that a misunderstanding may have arisen in the MOD from the fact that our Type 264 radar is the earlier low powered model, i.e. 50 Kw as opposed to the 500 Kw systems in use in the U.K. In any case, you will appreciate that the retention of the Tai Mo Shan radar is a matter of much greater importance to us than the MOD appear to think. We regard it as essential rather than merely desirable.
My second point concerns the timing of the RAF withdrawal. We understand from Cable and Wireless that they would require 6 months to recruit and train staff to cover the maintenance and overhaul responsibilities (this assumes that the problem of spares can be overcome, on which we are not making much progress with the U.S. Consulate General locally). It seems to us therefore appropriate that the RAF should continue to man the Tai Mo Shan air traffic control role of the radar system at least until 31st March, 1976. We shall, of course, press on with the provision of the necessary civil radar at Kai Tak but it is unlikely that this can be brought into service in less than two years. In this connection it is relevant that in 1972 it was our understanding, following discussions between the RAF locally and the Civil Aviation Department, that the 117 Signals Unit would remain in being until 1980 at the least. The position would have been very much more satisfactory, therefore, if earlier notice of the MOD's plans to remove 117 S.U. had been provided. From this you will see that although the continued operation of the limited service by MOD raises problems for it, the abrupt discontinuance now proposed raises very substantial difficulties for us, not only over first and second line servicing, but also over spares and third
C.S. 41A
P.L. O'Keeffe, Esq., Cvo,
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept., Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
London S.W.1
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