Alert over troop cuts
Slashing Army means Britain ‘couldn’t fight a campaign like Falklands’
THE Defence Secretary has given the clearest indication yet that cuts to the Armed Forces will be announced today.
Ben Wallace repeatedly refused to deny that troop numbers would be slashed by his shake-up, in a series of interviews yesterday.
But a former defence chief warned that such a move would limit the UK’s ability to support future military endeavours.
Pressed on election campaign promises in which Boris Johnson had said there would be no cuts to the Army in ‘any form’, Mr Wallace had said: ‘The threat changes, we change with it.’
His tacit admission of cuts comes a month after the Daily Mail revealed plans to axe 10,000 soldiers from the Army.
It is widely expected to be reduced to 72,000 regular troops over the next decade as the Ministry of Defence looks to cut its manpower budget so it can afford the latest battlefield technology.
But Lord Richards, former chief of the defence staff, warned that cuts would prevent Britain from recapturing the Falkland Islands, should that ever be necessary.
‘Things come back to bite you,’ he said. ‘I don’t want us necessarily to get involved in another Afghanistan or Iraq, but historically we have... We have a moral and ethical responsibility to help. All those things require troops and numbers.’ Lord Richards, in charge of the Armed Forces from 2010 to 2013, said Britain may not have the capability in ten years to mount a military operation ‘that may be morally hugely important to us’.
He added: ‘We’ve got very noble ambitions, but the resources required to achieve that vision aren’t there.’ He also told Times Radio that troop cuts will encourage our enemies, such as Russia and China, to mount a conventional attack on us. Other reductions are expected to include the early retirement of four Type 23 frigates and the accelerated withdrawal from service of 53 Typhoon fighter jets. Commanders have also agreed cuts to the RAF Regiment, a 1,900-strong specialist unit founded in 1942 which protects aircraft and airbases from attacks by ground forces.
The MoD will today publish a command paper on the modernisation of the Armed Forces.
The Integrated Review will ‘define the Government’s vision for the UK’s role in the world over the next decade’. A major increase in nuclear weapon stockpiles and a greater reliance on hi-tech weaponry are expected.
The Royal Marines will be transformed into a new Future Commando Force (FCF) to be deployed around the world on an ‘enduring basis’. The MoD said the FCF will take on tasks traditionally done by units such as the Special Forces and SAS. But asked whether he could commit to retaining troop numbers at their current level, Mr Wallace told Sky News: ‘I’m not going to reveal on the media before Parliament... the details of the numbers of men and women of our Armed Forces.’ He then told Times Radio: ‘The threat changes and we change with it. If we didn’t change with it we’d have an army like the First World War.
‘I’m making these decisions based on £24billion extra on defence spending over the next four years – one of the biggest rises in defence spending since the Cold War.’
‘We’ve got very noble ambitions’