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BATSUB to downsize in 2011

GeneralBATSUB to downsize in 2011
The government of the United Kingdom (UK) has done its Strategic Defense and Security Review and in a cost-cutting effort, has decided to bring home the majority of the British Forces stationed around the world.
   
What does that mean for British Army Training Support Unit Belize (BATSUB)?
   
Well, it was announced today by Colonel Robert Lindsay, BATSUB’s commander, and Brigadier General Dario Tapia, Commander of the Belize Defence Force (BDF), that BATSUB will remain operational, but it will be downsized.
   
Lindsay told the press that throughout the duration of 2011, BATSUB will be downsizing in staff. He said that it is expected that by end of the downsizing process, there will be a regiment of about 6 to 8 British soldiers and about 60 civilians on the BATSUB staff. Currently there are 160 civilians under BATSUB employment.
   
He said that the British soldiers from BATSUB will be re-deployed within the British Army, which is increasingly going to be stationed in the UK itself.
   
Tapia said that the main area that the downsizing will affect is the helicopter support. He said that BATSUB currently provides the BDF with extensive helicopter support that will eventually have to be replaced as the downsizing is completed.
   
He said that BDF soldiers’ training in the UK will not be affected since they are sent out, rather than trained here. Tapia said that that arrangement will not change and that the relationship between the British Army and the BDF will continue.
   
Tapia said that the BDF is currently executing contingency plans to allow for filling the vacuum that the BATSUB downsizing will create in May 2011 when the helicopters go back to the UK.
   
According to Tapia, those contingency plans include building roads to BDF’s remote observation posts, which allows the BDF to insert troops in these areas and extract injured soldiers.
   
Currently the remote observation posts are only accessible with the assistance of BATSUB, which will be discontinued around May, 2011.
   
He said that the BDF is considering buying flight hours from Astrum helicopters, as a part of the contingency plans.
   
The last time BATSUB downsized was in 1994, when it was called British Forces Belize.

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