BRITAIN has committed a quarter of the Army for a war with Iraq.

The 26,000 troops earmarked yesterday for deployment to the Gulf have been drawn principally from three brigades: 7th Armoured Brigade, known as the Desert Rats, based at Bergen in Germany; 102 Logistic Brigade, based at Gutersloh, Germany; and 16 Air Assault Brigade, located in Colchester.

The Desert Rats, commanded by Brigadier Graham Binns, have been boosted by other units to make a more potent fighting force. They include the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, from 4th Armoured Brigade, and the 1st Battalion Light Infantry, from 20th Armoured Brigade. All these units are attached to 1st (UK) Armoured Division.

With 4,000 Royal Marines already committed to a Gulf deployment, the total size of the British contribution, including Royal Navy and RAF personnel, is more than 32,000, which is approaching the numbers involved in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

For the first Gulf War campaign against Iraq, Britain provided a total of 43,000 troops, 168 tanks, 300 armoured vehicles, 70 combat jets, six destroyers, four frigates and three minesweepers.

The difference this time is that the force announced by Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, yesterday is far better equipped, although there is one surprising omission.

The fighting force from 7th Armoured Brigade will consist of two armoured battle groups and two infantry battle groups, equipped with Challenger 2 tanks, AS90 self-propelled artillery and Warrior armoured fighting vehicles. In Desert Storm, the troops had the ageing Challenger 1 tank and the almost obselete M109 artillery pieces — but they did havethe powerful multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS), which is missing from the inventory of weapons listed by Mr Hoon in his Commons statement. This would indicate that the role of the British force will be to launch a fast-strike assault, alongside the Americans, but without unleashing the type of rocket barrage that heralded the ground invasion in Desert Storm. The emphasis this time will be to achieve the military objective — the overthrow of the regime of President Saddam Hussein — without causing mass casualties among Iraqi forces and risking a high toll of civilian deaths.

Mr Hoon made no mention of special forces, but at least two squadrons from the SAS are likely to be included in the deployment, as well as a squadron from the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Service.

The size of the British land force will place huge strains on the Army. At least two units from 16 Air Assault Brigade, including the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, will have to remain on firefighting duty for today’s expected fire strike. The units will be released for warfighting training tomorrow.

With 25 per cent of the Army’s strength of about 100,000 committed to Operation Telic, codename for the expeditionary force bound for the Gulf, the rest of the Army will be under strain to fulfil all the other roles at home and overseas. There are 12,000 soldiers tied up with Operation Fresco, the firefighting task, 13,500 in Northern Ireland, 2,750 in the Balkans and about 300 in Afghanistan.

Defence sources said that the real problem would come after a war with Iraq. If the troops were expected to stay in the region for any length of time to help to maintain security in Baghdad and elsewhere, there would be a huge drain on resources. Troops would have to be rotated.

As with Operation Desert Storm, the ground-force formation will be commanded by the headquarters of 1st (UK) Armoured Division, based at Herford in Germany. The commander of the division, Major-General Robin Brims, will command the whole British land force. Of the 26,000 troops, fewer than 10,000 will be combat soldiers.

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