In 1974 the British government decided that British forces would be entirely withdrawn from Cyprus, because the sprawling bases had become undefendable in the light of increasing troop demands in Northern Ireland, and because of pressure on the defence budget. The U.S. had lost access to its many signals intelligence bases in Turkey due to its political dispute with Turkey following the invasion of Cyprus, and it very strongly objected to any British withdrawal which would lose it access to GCHQ signals intelligence from Cyprus. The U.S. agreed to contribute to base costs, and the British cancelled the closure plan, though force numbers were reduced to about 800 plus 200 GCHQ civilian staff. U.S. use of the base increased, such as Lockheed U-2 spy flights on Syria, though flights were generally at night "to avoid local curiosity".