KUWAIT: The first British soldiers likely to be involved in a ground invasion of Iraq have arrived in Kuwait, heralding the arrival of a full expeditionary force later in the month as the pace of military preparation increases.
The eight-man team from the 102nd Logistics Brigade, to be joined by a further 20 soldiers later today have been sent on a reconnaissance mission to ready a British base in the Kuwaiti desert. "These are sensible contingency measures in case we have to go to war," said a Ministry of Defence spokesperson.
The team will be involved in co-ordinating the arrival of troops and equipment and assessing water, food and sewage facilities that a large British military presence would need. With the launch of HMS Ark Royal for the Gulf on Saturday and the chartering of ships to carry equipment over the Christmas period, the rest of the brigade is expected "sooner rather than later" according to one military source. But at the only base currently housing British troops in Kuwait - the Aliah Salem airbase with 300 RAF personnel and eight Tornadoes used to patrol Iraq's southern no fly zone - the possibility of war against Iraq still seems a distant prospect.
In the heart of the Kuwait desert and 50 miles from the border with Iraq, the base is in an ideal location to begin a troop build-up. But according to one British officer at the base, no preparations have been made to accommodate any more men, and with the facility being shared with the US and Kuwaiti air forces, there is "no additional capacity".
The alternative to upgrading Aliah Salem is to build a completely new base along the model favoured by the Americans, who have been constructing camps and airstrips in the desert since October. With a fully operational military base like Camp New York, the US military headquarters along the border with Iraq, taking over six weeks to construct, time is clearly running out for building work to begin if war begins in the spring.
The leisurely pace of British preparations, compared with American efforts, is beginning to concern US military planners.
One US military official said: "The Brits don't need a reconnaissance team, they need to start building unless the entire British army plans to stay in tents for the duration of the war."