TNAG-0476-FCO40-541-Strength-of-garrison-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 77

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b.

•

Army We should be reducing BAOR to less than half

It

the Brussels Treaty figure, to a point where it could

defend perhaps a third of its current frontage.

would be such poor value for money that radically

different options for a land contribution to NATO

would have to be examined.

We should be cutting home-

based forces by a further 15,000 men and could sustain

nothing like our current Northern Ireland task.

C. Royal Air Force. We should be reducing all parts of

the RAF front line very severely, and variously by

between 25% and 75%. The impact would be such that

the RAF would have less than half the combat strength

of the French or Federal German air forces and be

smaller even than the Italian Air Force.

d.

Procurement Executive.

Our R&D capability would be

reduced to about 70% of its present size by 1983/4. A

rationalisation programme costing £20-30m would be

necessary.

Comparable reductions would be made throughout

the PE including, for example, PE headquarters, Proof

and Experimental Establishments, the PE Air Fleet,and

equipment. for quality assurance, communications and

intelligence. The number of civilians (mainly in R&D

Establishments and HQs) would have to be reduced from

57,000 to 39,000 in 1978/9 by means, among other things,

of a redundancy scheme beginning in 1975/6 (with

significant extra expenditure in that year), and possibly

affecting as much as 10,000 employees.

Extramural

research would have to be cut by 40% or 50% in the period

to 1978/9 and capital investment in plant and works by

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