Number of troops in the Army falls again

THE NUMBER of troops in the British Army has fallen again, new figures show, leaving it nearly 4,000 short of the Government’s target.

The number of full-time soldiers in the Army fell to 78,407 as of April, according to figures released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The Army says it needs 82,000 trained full-time troops to operate effectively. But these figures from the MoD show the Army has been below its target strength every month for the past two years.

The Conservatives have dropped a commitment not to reduce the Army to below 82,000 full-time troops from their General Election manifesto.

Overall, the MoD is 5.1 per cent below its target for full-time troop numbers in the Army, compared with 4.8 per cent in the RAF and two per cent in the Navy and Royal Marines.

So-called “voluntary outflow”, where personnel choose to leave the Armed Forces, was the most common reason for leaving, rather than other factors such as redundancy.

“There is no single reason why personnel leave on voluntary outflow, but the personnel who completed the armed forces continuous attitude survey indicated reasons for leaving the armed forces included the impact of service life on family and personal life and opportunities outside the armed forces,” said documents released alongside the figures.