UK military spending and cuts

[UKquest]

The government announced today to save costs they will be reviewing UK military bases in Cyprus. With the threat of closure how big a loss strategically would it be if the army, and RAF base's there would closedown. Considering the importance of the base's have been in recent years. For example RAF Akrotiri was a staging post for operations in Iraq and Libya. Furtermore, with all these cuts announced in the Defence spending review both in terms of personnel and equipment how effective can future UK military operations be?

 

[riksavage]

The government announced today to save costs they will be reviewing UK military bases in Cyprus. With the threat of closure how big a loss strategically would it be if the army, and RAF base's there would closedown. Considering the importance of the base's have been in recent years. For example RAF Akrotiri was a staging post for operations in Iraq and Libya. Furtermore, with all these cuts announced in the Defence spending review both in terms of personnel and equipment how effective can future UK military operations be?

The UK presence in Cyprus was originally focused on providing peace monitoring support along the green line. A battalion is also permanently stationed on the island to provide 24-7 stand-by to support for overseas operations (Afghanistan) in the ready reserve role. The UK may well downgrade this presence, but I seriously doubt the intelligence listening post will disappear and the airfield be totally closed. Like what's planned for Germany, the army battalion will be withdrawn back to the UK as the threat of conflict on the island is now pretty low.

Keeping a large base open in Cyprus (2,880 military personnel and 1,610 civilians) is an expensive luxury considering it's so close to our NATO partners in the Med. With the arrival of C17 and the new tanker/transport fleet, the need for a stop-over location is much reduced. Also there are no fighters permanently based at Akrotiri. They should actually make the air base a NATO facility with a joint presence, possibly one hosting a pan-European maritime surveillance capability.

The UK currently has a number of overseas training venues, which are used on a regular basis, Canada (BATUS) and Kenya (BATUK) being two of the most popular. BATUS for armoured warfare, BATUK for hot and high training. With budgets being tight, keeping bases open for no reason other than historical ones is a waste of manpower and money. I would rather see funds diverted to better training opportunities and/or the Falkland Islands until the QE's arrive. At least the Falklands offers the potential for an oil strike, which will serve the UK's interests.

With the RAF being cut, man-power needs to be focused at critical locations, which support UK interests. Like the army the RAF are moving towards super-bases, Brize for example is expanding to host all transport/tankers, this will save huge amounts of cash and centralize operations and personnel, removing the need for expensive rotational tours and family upheavals.