Akrotiri in doubt?

[Al R]

BBC News - Conservative peer Ashcroft gets defence review job

Former Conservative deputy chairman and donor Lord Ashcroft is to act as a lead advisor on a government review of the UK's military bases in Cyprus. More than 3,000 UK personnel are stationed in two bases, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, on the Mediterranean island.

As long as it closes after my visit in September..

[minigundiplomat]

Possibly some clever high level politics and an attempt to claw money for defence back from the FCO, by commissioning a study into the future of the 2 SBA's.
I can see Dhekalia back in Cypriot hands, but if Akrotiri does change hands, it will be to the USA or some kind of 'civilianised' facility a la Ascension, with skeleton manning at the airfield, and the quiet continuation of other activities.

[Al R]

I can see Dhekalia back in Cypriot hands, but if Akrotiri does change hands, it will be to the USA or some kind of 'civilianised' facility a la Ascension, with skeleton manning at the airfield, and the quiet continuation of other activities.

Yup, wasn't there a Serco/Akrotiri study a few years back?

[Whenurhappy]

There have been a number of options and studies considered over the last couple of years. 2nd PUS (Brennan) was proposing that the manning of Cyprus followed the FI model - 2-3 year tours for senior/key appointments whilst everyone else would do 4-6 month unaccompanied tours, thus removing the huge domestic overheads of SFA, schools, clinics etc. Separately there was a detailed study on contracting out most of the airfield functions. I'm sure this was done to death in earlier threads.

The previous Prime Minister had some very definite views on UK holdings in Cyprus and was keen to get the reunification talks going, but his naiviety was stunning. He failed to consult with either the FCO or MOD (let alone socialiise the issue with our Cousins); luckily, reunification in Cyprus is about as likely as...well, I don't know what, but you get the picture.

MGD: I'm not sure what you meant about clawing money back from the FCO. Compared with the MOD, FCO's budget is miniscule, and I can't see how monies could be got from the FCO in any likely scenario.

[Tankertrashnav]

"Lord Ashcroft's qualifications for this task are his collection of old Victoria Crosses, years of private plane and yacht rides with William Hague, and a decade of vast Tory donations as a secret non dom.

I'd pretty much go along with that. Anyone have any idea if he has any actual experience of defence matters which would justify his getting this job (unpaid, apparently, but you can bet he wont be staying in a non air-conditioned transit block at Akrotiri)?

[hello1]

Well anyone can edit Wikipedia but it's probably better than looking at his own website:

Michael Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is worth an estimated £1Bn+ and made it all from nothing. Alternatively we could call in a retired 4* who knows all about Defence but has an unfortunate history of taking billions of Her Majesty's pounds and delivering absolutely nothing.

[Harley Quinn]

Alternatively we could call in a retired 4* who knows all about Defence but has an unfortunate history of taking billions of Her Majesty's pounds and delivering absolutely nothing.

Fair comment, instead the idea seems to be to use someone who has no experience in either Defence or Foreign Affairs, but who knows all about costs and efficiency. If he persuades the government to face the inevitable role for (Great) Britain it might actually be worthwhile.

[FlapJackMuncher]

This seems to happen every year.
Wonder what they will call this one?

I've said for a while:
Close Dhekelia (Does Cyprus need an acclimatised battalion on standby for hot ops? - out of 10,000 troops in Afghan how many are acclimatised before getting there?),
move Epi HQ to Akrotiri and close all of Epi apart from the comms.
Ay Nic stays but becomes unaccompanied - it can't get much smaller
Akrotiri goes unaccompanied.

No idea if it will save huge amounts of money.
Akrotiri will become a quiet soulless place if it happens.

[dallas]

Get the Americans to pay for it, either directly (Akrotiri AFB) or indirectly. Then we could lodge there and would get decent facilities. Am sure there's more to it diplomatically, but everyone would win.

[Could be the last?]

Sounds about right as they are just finishing new SFA and SLAM at both Epi and Aki. Not sure it would go down well with the locals as they would have to fleece each other instead of the Brits!!

Project Wavell only completed its findings less than 12 months ago, so unless it is complete closure or withdrawl of 'capabilities.....' at Aki, what else can they do to save money?

[Dengue_Dude]

Akrotiri will become a quiet soulless place if it happens.

Would that be the place that wouldn't open if we arrived from Masirah before 0600 local, having flown all night? Surely not.

Characterised by making transit crews unwelcome a lot of the time, hope things have changed. Their attitude was second only to Fraggle Rock, whereas Malta, Gibraltar and Mount Pleasant couldn't do enough to help.

Would it be such a loss? I'm not, of course talking about Movements or VASF et al, who were, in the main most helpful.

[Fraggle_Rock]

When was that?

Cos that couldn't have been recently but if you look in the documents we are only meant to be open 7 until 7 unless it flight is operational.

[Willard Whyte]

Aren't they all?