Army Cuts: Thousands Told They Will Lose Jobs

Nearly 4,500 Army staff have been given their redundancy notices in the latest round of staff cuts, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

A total of 4,480 are being axed as the Government tries to reduce the number of regulars by about 20% to 82,000.

Sky's Defence Correspondent David Bowden said those who take voluntary redundancy will be leaving within six months, and compulsory redundancies will be complete in a year.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the move was necessary to help balance the books, but insisted operational capability would not be affected.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed there will be no further reductions in manpower in the next round of spending cuts.

Announcing the latest tranche of redundancies, the third to arise from the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, he said: "It is with great regret that we have had to make redundancies to deliver the reduction in the size of the armed forces, but unfortunately they were unavoidable due to the size of the defence deficit that this Government inherited.

 "Although smaller, our armed forces will be more flexible and agile to reflect the challenges of the future with the protection and equipment they need.

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said the redundancy notices being issued today "represent not just broken promises but a failing strategy" to reform the Army.

"There is a huge effort going into sacking soldiers, but nowhere near as much is being done to plug the gap by recruiting new reservists," he said.

"These redundancies represent not just broken promises but a failing strategy, and the level of voluntary applicants will be a signal of morale."

The MoD said: "Tough decisions needed to be made to address the multibillion-pound deficit and bring the defence budget back into balance.

"This unfortunately included making some redundancies across the armed forces. However we can be clear that these reductions will not affect our operational capability.

"The end of combat operations in Afghanistan and the restructuring of our armed forces means they will be more reflective of the complex global situation and more adaptable to future challenges and threats."

Chancellor George Osborne, speaking from the G8 summit in Northern Ireland earlier, said Britain had to make "difficult decisions" about spending to "live within its means".

He told Sky News: "We've got to have an Army we can afford ...

"And when it comes to the military what we've said is we want to make sure that Britain can still project itself abroad, defend itself at home, and that our soldiers have all the latest equipment they need to do that.

"As part of these changes, yes there have been difficult decisions about getting the size of the Army right, but we're also purchasing for them the latest equipment."

Both the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, and the Head of the Army, General Sir Peter Wall, are concerned about the impact of further defence cuts.

Sir Peter has exclusively told Sky News that Britain's chances of success on the battlefields of the future could be at serious risk if the Army was downsized in the latest spending review, the results of which will be announced next week.

The Prime Minister was forced to respond to Sir Peter's comments by saying there would be no further staff cuts to the Army, Navy or Air Force.

British Army spokesman Major General James Chiswell told Sky News it was a "hard day" for staff but that the redundancies had been carried out "as fairly as we could hope for".

Personnel are being offered help with resettling into civilian life.

:: Britain's Last War? The Jeff Randall documentary on the impact of Army spending cuts is on Sky News, Tuesday at 8.30pm.

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