British army to cut 1,400 more troops
Iran Press TV
Thu Jan 23, 2014 3:20PM GMT
British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond is to announce the last round of job cuts across the army, axing another 1,400 troops to reduce it to its smallest size in 200 years.
The redundancies will have an impact on the Gurkha regiment and come only a week after the military launched a new recruitment campaign.
The regular army forces are being cut from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2020, while the newly-renamed Army Reserve forces - formerly the Territorial Army - is being expanded from 19,000 to 30,000.
"This redundancy tranche marks the final leg in our reduction of the army from its former strength towards 82,500," said General Sir Peter Wall, the chief of the General Staff.
"It's the end of a period of significant uncertainty, albeit the relatively small number affected in this final tranche will get our particular attention in making sure that they are fairly treated and support their transition to civilian life," he said.
"This actually draws a line and we are now concentrating on drawing in the right talent to populate the future army structure, which is all about our operational readiness for future challenges," added Wall.
The cuts come despite the army having launched a recruitment campaign at the beginning of the year for both regular troops and reservists after saying it was struggling to attract applicants.
Earlier, Hammond had announced the launching of a television advertising campaign, which he said, would "dispel forever the myth that somehow the army isn't recruiting."
"Yes, the regular army will be smaller in the future than it has been in the past, and yes, there will be one further round of redundancies unfortunately, but that does not mean that the army is not recruiting," he said.
It comes as a parliamentary committee has warned that the government's decision to slash the size of its military forces by tens of thousands of lacks "strategic vision."
MOL/HJL
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