PERMANENT GARRISONS
2
Hong Kong
FORCE DEPLOYMENT
- 4 battalions (3 Gurkhas, 1 British); 3 Patrol vessels; 8 Wessex and 8 Scout helicopters.
-
3,900 Gurkha soldiers; 1,650 British soldiers; 1,180 locally enlisted personnel 2,380 locally enlisted civilians; 140 UK based civilians.
240 RAF personnel; 200 RN personnel; 310 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 65% of the costs and the MOD 35%.
PROPOSED CHANGES
Land: Agreed that one battalion will be withdrawn in 1992. A second battalion may be withdrawn in 1995 (review in 1993).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Air: The Wessex force will be reviewed in 1993 (underr original plans 2 helicopters were to be withdrawn in 1993).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 The need for both services to have helicopters is weak: MOD may agree that one service can be shortly withdrawn.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 (but unspecified) propor- tion of the operating costs of the vessels between 1992 and 1997. Governor has said there is no chance of HKG agreeing.
Gurkhas: Under "Options for Change" the residual force will number 2,500 after 1997 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