SECRET UK EYES A
first Belizean Commandant of the BDF will be appointed. The
plan for the Belizeanization of the Air Wing is still on target
for 1990 but its success will depend on the Air Wing's ability to retain its trained pilots and engineers.
57. The level of activity in South America remains low with no
LSP deployed but a modest level of subsidised UK training taking
place. Recent events in Colombia are likely to increase this level of activity.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH TRAINING
58. In December 1988 the COS reaffirmed the importance of F&CT in support of political, defence and sales objectives, and directed that such training should be maintained at broadly the level of recent years. DMAO was nominated as the lead
Directorate charged with coordinating F&CT policy on behalf of
Central Staff, the work to be undertaken by a newly formed F&CT Committee under the chairmanship of DMAO and Head of Sec (0)(C). Significantly, the COS had been unable to accept that F&CT should
be a separately identified and costed part of the Defence
Programme; thus its priority and level of resources could not
properly be weighed against other demands. However, measures to
improve the application of training subsidies to make F&CT more
affordable to countries whom it is desired to assist continue to
be pursued; implementation of the New Management Strategy will
not necessarily make the problem less intractible and could
indicate that higher costs should be levied: the "waiver cost
level" will need to be carefully examined. The OOACG has worked
hard this year at the difficulties related to both the financing of F&C training and its targetting, and whilst it is not confident that the major difficulties have been ironed out, it
continues to wrestle with the problems entailed.
59.
Following its inaugural meeting in January 1989 the
Committee identified a requirement for renewed Ministerial
guidance on some aspects of F&CT. On 22 May the then US of S(AF) as Chairman of the Training Studies Steering Group (TSSG)
SECRET UK EYES A
22