CONFIDENTIAL
REPLACEMENT OF HONG KONG PATROL CRAFT
INTRODUCTION
The five patrol craft which constitute the Royal Navy's Hong Kong Squadron
will come to the end of their useful life in about 1982. The Naval Staff have
1.
already set in train the necessary studies leading to a staff requirement for
successor vessels. The costs of the Squadron, like those of the rest of the
Hong Kong Garrison, are shared between the Hong Kong Government and HG under
the terms of the Defence Costs Agreement (DCA) negotiated at the end of 1975.
In view of the operational and financial interest of the Hong Kong Government
in this matter, and of its implications for the DCA, official negotiations with
them will be necessary before the MOD undertakes any substantive work towards
the provision of replacement vessels. The purpose of this paper is to obtain
Ministerial agreement, in principle, to the need for a continuing Royal Navy
presence in Hong Kong; to its role; and to the line to take in negotiatiois
with the Hong Kong Government, which must begin in the near future because of
the lead time for ordering new ships for the task.
BACKGROUND
2. The DCA concluded between the Hong Kong Government and HMG in December 1975,
and which runs in the first instance for 7 years, from April 1976 to March 1983,
lays down the size, composition and cost of the garrison. The Royal Navy 'teeth
arm' element is stated in Annex A to the Memorandum of Understanding to be
5 Patrol Craft. This commitment has been, and continues to be met by 5 "TON"
class Mine Countermeasures Vessels (HCMVs) nouified to the patrol craft role
in Hong Kong Maiers.
3. A major refit programme has enabled the life of these vessels, which were
built between 1953 and 1957, to be extended to 1982, but because the normally
accepted hull life of Wooden-hulled warships 111 by then have been exceeded
*
and because of the
CONFIDENTIAL
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