TNAG-1939-FCO40-2765-Future-of-Hong-Kong-defence-and-public-order-1989 — Page 109

was noted for the record.

SECRET UK EYES A LOCSEN

31. The Chairman invited S02 Maint (Avn), representing HQ

REME (Avn) UK, who was in attendance in order to provide

special technical advice, to comment on the issue. SO2 Maint

(Avn) drew attention to the fact that the IRR aircraft were

required to be airtested twice during the 6 months trial and

advised that 2 of the 3 proposed exercise generations should

be utilised to meet these airtest commitments. He observed

that the third exercise generation would result in the

production of an element of spurious maintenance hours for

which HQ REME (Avn) UK would need to compensate when

evaluating the trial results. The Secretary proposed that,

to avoid unnecessary corruption of the data base, the number

of occasions on which the IRR aircraft were subjected to

exercise generation should be reduced from 3 to 2 and that

the timing of these exercises should be influenced, but not

directly governed, by the frequency of the IRR SCOUT airtest

schedule. The Committee decided that this proposal should

be adopted.

32. The Chairman sought and gained the Committee's approval

for the timescale, aims and provisions of the SCOUT IRR

Trial as briefed - but with due note taken of the reduction

of no-notice generation exercises from 3 to 2.

Army Dept

HQ BFHK

ITEM 5. WESSEX HELICOPTER CREW RATIOS

33. The Chairman introduced the Committee to the background for subsequent debate. On 1 Sep 89 28 Sqn RAF would reduce from an Aircraft Establishment (AE) of 8 WESSEX aircraft to 6 plus 2 In Use Reserve (IUR). The Withdrawal Plan included a statement indicating that HQ BFHQ would conduct a study

to examine in-theatre crew ratios against the availability

of reinforcements flown out from UK. This measure had been

agreed in principle at the previous meeting. On the basis of CBF's revised concept of operation, CRAF Hong Kong had

LOCSEN

SECRET UK EYES A