More Army job cuts to be announced (From Hampshire Chronicle)

More Army job cuts to be announced

7:54am Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in National News © Press Association 2013

A third round of Army redundancies is to be announced under plans by the Government to reduce Armed Forces numbers.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is expected to give details of around 5,000 job losses as part of cuts aimed at reducing Army numbers from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2017.

The BBC said there could be a higher proportion of compulsory redundancies than in the first two rounds of cuts.

The Government has already announced that reservist numbers are to be doubled to 30,000 to help fill the gap.

An MoD spokesman said a written ministerial statement would be made later.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned last May that entire infantry and armoured units will face the axe as a result of the Government's programme of cuts to the armed forces.

The reduction in Army numbers was set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) published in 2010.

The announcement on job cuts comes after former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell questioned whether Britain's defence and intelligence agencies had enough resources to meet Prime Minister David Cameron's goals of tackling the terrorist network responsible for the Algerian massacre.

Mr Cameron said: "Of course, there are always challenges about the level of resources, even in times when money is plentiful, and it isn't plentiful today.

"If you look at the defence and security budget, it is actually in cash terms stable at £33 billion and what we have tried to do as a Government, and perhaps we need to look again and go even further, is to focus on those threats to our security we face today."

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence(Ministry of Defence)