Forces face savage cuts

Britain's armed forces are to suffer the most brutal defence cuts for 50 years to meet Government spending targets, the Evening Standard can reveal today.

The £4.5billion cuts will mean huge reductions in manpower and equipment across all three services and will come despite chronic shortages during the war in Iraq and the ongoing efforts to fight global terrorism.

Hardest hit will be the RAF, which will be forced to axe 7,000 to 9,000 personnel, roughly an eighth of its total.

The Army's fleet of tanks will be reduced by up to a third, while the infantry will lose up to 2,000 men - the equivalent of two regular battalions. The contract for building two new 55,000-tonne aircraft carriers for the Navy will also be delayed.

The cuts, which aim to meet spending targets set by Chancellor Gordon Brown tomorrow, will be staggered

"It will be very, very painful," said a senior defence source. "But because the cuts are to be phased in, it will not be until September when we will begin to feel the real impact."

According to the official, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon held face-to-face negotiations with Mr Brown in an effort to soften the blow - but was told there was no room for manoeuvre.

The news will cause particular dismay for the Army, which has taken on an increasing workload. Large numbers of troops are in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia and there are also plans to send reinforcements to Sierra Leone and a battalion to East Africa for the campaign against terrorism.

The official said the Treasury has demanded an immediate cut of around £1.2billion from the forces' budget of around £28billion. But the annual defence budget is already overspent by nearly £3 billion, entailing an effective cut of £4.2billion to meet the spending targets, rising to about £4.5 billion by September.

The situation has been exacerbated by the £23 billion Eurofighter, which is now being introduced in the RAF more than 10 years late.

It had been hoped to reduce the RAF's order for 232 aircraft, which was planned in the 1970s for the Cold War and is jointly produced by UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.

But the contract cannot be broken as the penalties would be prohibitive, giving officials no alternative but to make the cuts elsewhere. BAE Systems, the UK's biggest defence contractor, is bracing itself for a major cutback in orders for large destroyers, submarines and land systems, which could lead to a large loss of jobs.

The Government aims to spare frontline units, particularly in the Army, as much as possible, according to officials.

But military analyst Major Charles Heyman, from the Jane's Information Group, said: "The trouble is it is always quicker and easier to cut operational and manpower parts of the budget, so the frontline units always suffer."

The cuts come as the Commons Defence Committee today publishes what is expected to be a highly critical report on aspects of the conduct of operations in Iraq last year.

In particular, it points to the failure of the logistics units to deliver vital equipment to the frontline in time and what it calls a major breakdown in communications systems.