Hoon swings the axe

Thousands of British servicemen are to be made redundant in a swingeing round of cuts announced today.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon revealed 10,500 service posts will disappear in cuts which went even deeper than the worst fears of the armed forces.

The services will be reduced to their smallest size since the Second World War and radically reorganised with a new emphasis on hi-tech weaponry.

The 1,500 job losses for the Army came as a shock even to senior officers, who had thought the already overstretched force would escape the axe.

Mr Hoon confirmed reports that four Army battalions would go, though he said the units to be axed would not be named yet. Three will be in England and one in Scotland.

Other historic regiments will be merged into multi-battalion regional units, though they will still retain part of their identities.

Up to 600 soldiers will be subject to compulsory redundancy.

General Sir Mike Jackson, chief of the general staff, said he realised it would be "sad and unwelcome news" for the Army - and "perhaps counterintuitive" at a time when soldiers are busier than for many years.

But he insisted that that the cuts were not driven by money and that the overall outcome would be "positive" for many soldiers.

Conservative defence spokesman Nicholas Soames branded the cuts a "betrayal".

He said: "The people whose planes are going to be grounded are the same men and women who bailed out the Government over foot and mouth, saved Sierra Leone from destruction, freed Kosovo and liberated Iraq.

"These young men and women will feel themselves to have been betrayed, politically and morally." Bruce George, the Labour MP and chairman of the Commons defence committee, demanded: "Please explain who the idiot was who thinks you can cut the infantry at a time when the pressure on them is enormous.

"Have you consulted Gerry Adams or maybe the Fire Brigades Union whether they are going to behave themselves over the next few years?"

Mr George said his committee would summon Mr Hoon to explain his decisions after the summer.

But Mr Hoon said the armed forces could

achieve their goals through a "smaller number of more capable military assets" and stressed that defence spending would continue to rise.

The MoD said there was a "shift away from numbers of people and platforms" to an emphasis on the "effects" that could be achieved with high

technology. Modern ships and aircraft could do more than their predecessors, officials said.

Mr Hoon said: "The Government is determined to make the choices necessary to ensure that the real growth in defence expenditure is targeted at what the armed forces require in the 21st century rather than what they have inherited from the 20th."

"I would be dishonest if I did not say that the spending review exercise this year has been very challenging for defence and the Army."