Army’s latest cost-saving scheme: strip soldiers of their trousers

THE Army is to scrap barrack dress trousers and skirts as soldiers now prefer to wear their combats at work.

It is believed the move could save the Army much-needed cash.

Instead of the barrack dress, soldiers will instead wear their No 2 trousers or skirts, with the issued long-sleeve shirt for barrack dress order.

Combat dress is easily recognised as having a camouflage pattern, but service and barrack dress are more similar in design. Barrack dress trousers are often bottle green, but these will be replaced by the typically brown service dress trousers and will be paired with the barrack dress jumper.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that there would be no rules as to when personnel would be allowed to wear barrack or combat dress, but they would be informed when to wear a set uniform for formal functions.

The last big change of army uniform was in 2009 when the MOD replaced all existing combat uniform with a new camouflage design.

Retired Lt Col Kestrel Simson, who heads the Army’s ceremonial policy and plans desk, said the barrack dress items had been rolled out a decade ago. Speaking to Soldier magazine, he said: “Most personnel continue to wear their combat dress in barracks, so we have stock that is costing us a lot of money to keep.”

The MOD said the reason it would be scrapping the barrack dress trousers and skirts was down to lack of demand.

While it is unknown how much money will be saved, it will come as welcome news as it was reported in May that Britain’s Armed Forces could be almost £21 billion short of the cash needed to buy warships, jets and military equipment to keep operating over the next decade.

The Public Accounts Committee had accused the MOD of losing control of costs, saying it “does not have enough money to buy all the equipment it says it needs”. The committee calculated a deficit of at least £4.9billion and potentially as much as £20.8billion over the 10-year £180 billion equipment budget.