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THE ARMED SERVICES AND AUXILIARY SERVICES
Regiment, the 660 Squadron Army Air Corps, the Composite Ordinance Depot, 50 Command Workshops Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and the British Military Hospital. Hong Kong citizens also play an important role through their support of the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers), a locally-enlisted regiment of part-time soldiers, and the Hong Kong Military Service Corps which is also locally- enlisted but forms part of the British Army. This latter corps is staffed by full-time regular soldiers and numbers 1 268 Chinese officers and men who serve throughout Hong Kong as guards, military policemen, interpreters, dog-handlers, drivers, cooks, clerks, seamen and storemen. The Hong Kong Military Service Corps provides a valuable contribution to the garrison and its soldiers have played an important role in operations against illegal immigrants.
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The primary role of the army is to support the Royal Hong Kong Police Force in maintaining internal security; it is also responsible for preserving the integrity of the border. In recent years the major task has been to help with the control of illegal immigration, with individual battalions spending an average of three months each year on border duties. Despite the significant reduction in the numbers of illegal immigrants attempting to gain entry to Hong Kong, a high level of border vigilance has been maintained throughout the year. Improvements to border security are constantly being made and anti-illegal immigration operations continue to play a major part in the daily life of the army.
Space and training resources are limited in Hong Kong and overseas exercises are essential in maintaining the standards of Hong Kong-based units; such exercises also provide a welcome opportunity to train in different environments. The year saw exercises taking place in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Brunei and Malaysia. In addition, Hong Kong conducted a command and control exercise, Exercise Radwell, which involved the government and the police as well as the British Forces.
Individual training is a necessary and important element within the overall training programme, and Hong Kong-based units once again demonstrated their prowess in competition with the rest of the British Army at the 1982 Bisley Meeting in England. The competition was won by the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles, with the first three places taken by Gurkha units serving in Hong Kong.
During the year, Hong Kong units were visited by a number of distinguished personalities and organisations from the United Kingdom. These included Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Kent who visited the Scots Guards, the Women's Royal Army Corps and the Army Catering Corps; the British Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, who visited HMS Tamar and the Scots Guards; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, who visited his former regiment the Scots Guards; and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence.
Royal Air Force
The headquarters of the Royal Air Force Hong Kong is in the New Territories at Royal Air Force Station Sek Kong. The eight RAF Wessex helicopters of the No. 28 (Army Co-operation) Squadron operate from Sek Kong airfield and are supported by engineering and administrative squadrons. Included in the supporting element is an air traffic control unit which also provides an advisory control service outside Hong Kong International Airport airspace. Movement of military personnel and cargo by air from Hong Kong International Airport is controlled by the RAF Airport Unit based at Kai Tak, while the RAF Provost and Security Services Unit is located at Blackdown Barracks, San Po Kong. Additionally, RAF personnel serve on the staff of Headquarters British Forces.