Reported in the Times today is a series of planned cuts to the armed services ahead of the future Security and Defence Review.
When looking at these one should realise that they are options, presented and discussed in the normal line of business and not necessarily going to actually happen.
It does show the general direction of travel though.
- Scrapping of the Officer Training Corps (OTC)
- Withdrawal of troops from Cyprus
- MRA4 delayed
- Closing up to three airbases
- Reducing the £700m annual bill for army accommodation by giving soldiers housing credits to buy or rent property.
- Axeing the grace and favour homes provided to 20 army, navy and air force chiefs
- Closing Aldershot and Shrewsbury, two of the army’s five regional headquarters
- Privatising parts of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the organisation that repairs and supplies naval vessels
Some of these arent actually that bad.
Ok, wait, no, housing credits and grace and favour scrapping arent that bad, the rest are either, well it depends, or moronic.
Looks like TD’s worse case scenario, the armed forces become armed peacekeepers reliant on third party rescueing is coming to pass.
Hmm, withdrawl from Cyprus. I thought it was the presence of British troops on the island that stopped the Turks going all the way? When we pulled back from the Falkland’s this led to the Argentine invasion.
Could we truly rely on UN forces to keep future Greek or Turkish nationalist governments from making a land grab?
Sod the Cypriots, we’re in Cyprus so were within striking distance of the Bosporus and Suez Canal.
I am not sure why we are in Cyprus anymore – possibly just because we used to be… also it gives NATO some good bases in that part of the Med.
Would RAF Akrotiri become a civvy airport ? I can’t see the Turks being very impressed if it becomes a Greek AF Base….. ??
Anyway, despite all the great times I have had on the island (even while in uniform..!) get rid of it.
By the way Dominic – what have we got on Cyprus that we could strike into the Bosphorus with ?
As for the other ideas – well take the houses away from the top nobs, I am sure they get paid enough to take that perk away. Housing credits – oh please, there is a project just waiting to fail….
Its getting ridiculous – we really are heading towards an armed border police and a coast guard
“By the way Dominic – what have we got on Cyprus that we could strike into the Bosphorus with ?”
Nothing at the moment, but we do have an airfield there, so could tanker over a flight of Typhoons.
That’s the main reason we wanted the island, to control access to/from the eastern Mediterranean.
I’d like to point out that Cyprus is probably one of the most useful bases we have had since deciding 2 wars in the middle east were a good idea. A massive number of troops and air supplies come through Akrotiri since it is our only base in the region and a perfect refuelling stop for our transports. During the initial phases of Iraq and Afghanistan I had family on base who told me that Akrotiri was packed with troops.
The alternatives to this stop are either relying on a friendly host nation (and look where it got the US whilst using that base in Kyrgyzstan) or relying more on our air-air refuellers, which is costly, especially with the incoming PFI.
On top of all that we are the only guarantee for the Cypriots (EU members and people we signed a treaty to protect from further aggression) from the Turkish. If you’ve ever been to Nikosia and seen what I can only imagine is a scene similar to Berlin pre-1989 you’d realise how important that is. Lets be honest, the UN could not stop the Turks if they went further (not that I think they’d be stupid enough to) and the only nations willing or able to really do anything about it would be the UK and Greece.
People may wish to note that the suggestion was withdrawing troops from Cyprus this does not mean closing RAF Akrotiri or closing the listening facilities on the island. Also I don’t think people realise just how vitally important Cyprus is to the RAF and its ability to project power. Close Akrotiri and you massively diminish the capability to deploy forces abroad especially to the east where the balance of power is shifting. The RAF would essentially be in the crap as when a Government for good or bad reasons wishes to project power abroad they now have to jump through many hoops to get there. Or maybe they would say “Can’t do it” then it would all be on the Royal Navy and those white elephant carriers or those floating steel things oh how satisfying that would be. However the state the RN is in and projected to be in they may say the same thing. Just for laughs go on Google earth and work out how you would deploy men or machines by air to somewhere in the middle east without Cyprus you either need shed loads of tankers or local bases. Tankers are not as effective as bases and why go to the diplomatic and political hassle of trying to organise local transit bases when we already had one never mind trying to organise a base to use for offensive strikes.
Simply put if a politician ever decided it would be a good idea to close Cyprus I would be advocating that the RAF and possibly the army be massively reduced in strength or expensively reequipped. As chances are they would need to be lighter and somehow able to deploy thousands of nautical miles in one hop. The rest of the options are not too bad all things considered but remind me what did the Gray report point to that was a major money pit and what do you see suggested?
Grim it might have been busy in the run up to the current wars but compare that to 1991 when it most likely would have been packed.
Dominic – there are plenty of other NATO airfields in the region – many closer and better protected with SAMs etc
Grim – I have been there, lots of times, there is NO WAY the UK is the only thing keeping the Turks at bay – may 20 years ago. Now its economics, the UN and the EU. By the way if we withdraw our infantry battalions let the other Euro-NATO nations step up
Euan – Akrotiri is as vulnerable as any other airbase that can’t move. However, fine keep it in name and make it a joint NATO airbase, with lots of other nations chipping in – having convinced them that if they don’t we will hand it over to the Cypriots.
Just saying – there is plenty of potential for savings.
Jed you have good points, I’m strongly in favour of keeping it at the cost of cutting elsewhere depending on what is cut instead. I think of Cyprus as the proverbial unsinkable aircraft carrier and yes it can be damaged but it can be fixed and it’s easier to fix and cheaper to fix than unsinking an aircraft carrier. The point however is it’s there and we control it so we can fly aircraft in and out of there without needing approval for someone else and once we lose it we can’t just ask for it back once it’s gone it’s gone. As has been said before by everyone we cannot see the future and I would bet money on something happening in the middle east or east in general in the future. Thankfully there seems to be some realisation of this since Akrotiri will not be shut under this proposal so there seems to be a brain cell in the MoD that has survived.
So at what point do we withdraw the last vestiges of RN and RAF presence in Gibraltar on the grounds of cost ??????
Shush, someone might be watching
Jed there is not much of a presence left in Gibraltar to withdraw from what I understand there is mostly admin staff and some ground personnel to support aircraft passing through. RAF Gibraltar is mostly RAF in name only and it should cost peanuts to maintain. Admittedly I’ve no idea on specifics if there are more than a few people there or if maintaining what little presence there is costs serious money feel free to correct me. However the difference is Gibraltar is still a British Territory and the will of the people is to remain British so we will still have the option in future to use the airfield if needed.
“Dominic – there are plenty of other NATO airfields in the region – many closer and better protected with SAMs etc”
A NATO airfield isnt a UK airfield, and when push comes to shove, allies can tell you to jog on.
If, for some reason, the UK decides to interdict Lebanese shipping, without Cyprus, we’d be reliant on carriers, which are limited, or airbases in Turkey and Greece, which could be denied.
Admittedly, I think we should we should militarise all of our Overseas Territories.
Lots of debate on Cyprus. They could close the Eastern Sovreign Base Area quite easily and move the functions of the Joint Service Signals Unit (JSSU) to The Western Sovreign Base Area as there has been plenty of vacant real estate in Akrotiri & Episkiopi since they stopped being major permanent bases in 1975. JSSUs functions could even be moved back to the UK to GCHQ, either Cheltenham or one of the satellite stations in UK. That would free up an Infantry Battalion who are largely just guarding buildings in Dhekelia & Aiyos Nikolaos in the ESBA.
But why focus on Cyprus? What about Germany? Why do we still need 2 Brigades plus a Support Command out there? If anything is a throw back to the Cold War then that is. There are 22,000 UK Troops in Germany who are identically tasked to operations in Afghanistan and previously Iraq as those based in the UK. Why not move them back to the UK and put some of the 1.5BN Euros the troops and their families pump into the local economy every year into the British economy?
Because, we’re told, it’s part of our committment as the Lead Nation in the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC). Well, all the other contributing nations base their troops in their own countries AND HQ ARRC is currently on the move from Rheindahlen to the former RAF Innsworth just outside Gloucester! Do we really need to be the lead nation in the ARRC in any case? Maybe out contribution to the NATO alliance and any future threat it may or may not face in Europe be to the air and martitime defence of the North Atlantic and Western Approaches from where any reinforcement of Europe would have to come.
Oh, and another thing – On top of the 22,000 UK Troops in Germany, there are no less than 34,000 ‘support staff’! Takes the p..s a bit doesn’t it?! Who are they? What do they do? How much are they getting paid?
Richard shuffling the cards in Cyprus would not really save any money whatsoever moving the facilities would cost money and frankly the facilities especially the JSSU which is there for a reason. I doubt it could be moved back to the UK as there is a numbers station and other hush hush detachments out there. So in reality not much can really happen without either investment to improve and move facilities or simply losing capabilities that could later come back to haunt us especially in regards to intelligence. Ideally the facilities would be concentrated into the Western Sovereign Base Area and into much improved facilities enabling money to be saved in the long run.
The Germany question has already been well discussed here there are still questions but as people have mentioned we don’t have the massive dedicated training facilities here in the UK. Nor do we have the cash to move those personnel back into the United Kingdom even if there was money it would find better use elsewhere. There has also been investment in facilities in Germany replacing old housing stock which was frankly not adequate and other facilities have been improved money that would be spend moving facilities could be used to improve existing facilities. Ideally I would move the forces to the United Kingdom and at the same time reequip or modernise them to be a lighter more mobile force. Training could be done at BATUS which solves the space problem although anything based in Alberta is a long long way away from any trouble spots. This means a balance would need to be found as currently units in Germany have a mix of being closer to trouble spots and being able to train. Of course money is the main problem but of course this could be remedied if it were politically beneficial to withdraw from Germany although the Government and MoD would cock it up to no end.