i
PERMANENT GARRISONS
2 Hong Kong
140 Vk Based civilians. My
FORCE DEPLOYMENT
- 4 battalions (3 Gurkhas, 1 British);
3 Patrol vessels; 8 Wessex and 8 Scout helicopters.
3,900
5
2,500 Gurkha soldiers; 1,600 British soldiers; 1,238 locally enlisted personnel 2,488 locally enlisted eivilians.
240
200
100 RAF personnel; 500 RN personnel; 300 RN locally enlisted personnel.
Garrison costs are shared by the Hong Kong Government and the MOD under the 1988 Defence Costs Agreement (DCA). The Hong Kong Government pays 60% of the costs and the MOD 35%.
5%.
but
Unspecified
PROPOSED CHANGES
Land: Agreed that one bat lion will be withdrawn in 1992. second battalion may be withdrawn in 1995 (review in 1993). The 3rd and 4th battalions (1 Gurkha and 1 British) will be maintained up until 1996/97 (review in 1995). We and HKG would like to review this in 1993 as well.
Air: The Wessex force will be reviewed in 1993 (under original plans 2 helicopters were to be withdrawn in 1993). The Scout force will remain the same until the withdrawal of the 2nd battalion. The need for both services to have helicopters is weak: MOD may agree that one service can be shortly withdrawn.
Sea: The MOD intend to with- draw Hong Kong's 3 patrol boats in 1992. This is highly contentious. In 1990 MOD ministers agreed that the boats would be retained until 1997 provided that HKG met a higher, proportion of the operating costs of the vessels between 1992 and 1997.
St
Gurkhas: Under "Options for Change" the residual force 1994 will X number 2,500 instead of 4,000 as originally planned. We envisage no problem with this smaller force after 1997. A reduction below 2,500 would create difficulties.
JS4ABW