KABUL: No more surf ‘n’ turf overlooking the Hindu Kush, no more salsa classes on the Qandahar boardwalk or mocha frappes in the Helmand desert.

The US army has decided to cut back on catering, morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) services as it starts the $6bn relocation of a nearly 70,000-strong force, who must all leave by the end of 2014.

Soldiers used to enjoying four hot meals a day, including a midnight snack, will have to replace two of them with ration packs by the autumn, the US military has said. Commanders can choose which meals to cut, but breakfast and late-night servings are the most likely to go as that would remove a whole catering shift.

The change is billed as essential to slimming down a huge military operation supported by thousands of contract chefs and cleaners, going back to the “expeditionary footing” that the first troops to arrive, in 2001, had to endure.

Jeffrey Hawk, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said: “When we arrived in Afghanistan over 11 years ago we were lean and expeditionary. We need to leave the way we came in, lean and expeditionary.”

But commanders are also keen to eat into huge stockpiles of rations built up while there were more than 100,000 US troops fighting in tiny outposts around the country, which would otherwise be abandoned or shipped home at great expense.

The change will begin on May 1 and be rolled out across Afghanistan by October 1, although soldiers living in cramped conditions and working round the clock warned that the change, which could spell the end for treats including regular steak and lobster feasts at some bases, will dent morale.

“It’s great for, I guess, saving money and cutting back on contractors... but there’s a lot more things you can cut back,” Sergeant Michael Day, a combat engineer at Qandahar airfield, told the Stars and Stripes newspaper. “It’s not fair to the soldiers doing the daily grind.”

Among other things to go will be franchises such as Popeye’s at Bagram airbase and TGIF at Qandahar. The PX shops for soldiers will also shrink, cutting back on stocks of goods including computers and high-end sunglasses to concentrate on toiletries and necessities.

“Franchise food, coffee and merchandise vendors will also close when expeditionary standards are implemented,” Hawk said. “There will be less MWR-led events.”

Medical services will not be affected, so anyone injured in combat can be taken to top-level hospitals within the “golden hour” vital for saving lives. And wireless internet will remain switched on until bases close, allowing soldiers to stay in touch with friends and families back home. The only other thing that will still be on tap, for an army notoriously strict about appearances, is barber services. “Bases will see a reduction in MWR and personal care services, except haircuts,” Hawk said.

By arrangement with the Guardian