4,000 soldiers lose their jobs amid army cutbacks
More than 4,000 soldiers were today told they have lost their jobs in the latest round of Army redundancies, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
A total of 4,480 Army personnel have been made redundant in the latest tranche of job losses as the Government tries to reduce the number of regulars to 82,000 by 2018. The Ministry of Defence has said that the move is necessary to help balance the books but said operational capability would not be affected.
This happens as The third Battalion of the Mercian Regiment (3Mercian) – formerly The Staffords – is set to go.
The battalion will cease to exist after completing a forthcoming six-month tour of duty on the front line in Afghanistan and will instead be merged with 1 and 2 Mercian.
Defence ministers are also considering proposals to split up The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry, a Territorial Army regiment dating back to 1794.
The regiment, which is made up of four squadrons with the Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire soldiers based in Dudley together with Shropshire troops at the regiment's headquarters in Dawley Bank in Telford could be split to allow for the creation of a Scottish Yeomanry, due to planned defence cuts.
The Dudley base is home to A Squadron, which is the only remaining TA Royal Armoured Corps Squadron based in the West Midlands.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed there will be no further reductions in manpower in the next round of spending cuts.
Announcing the latest tranche of redundancies – originally thought to involve 5,300 soldiers – he said: "Today we have announced the third tranche of redundancies as we restructure the British Army to the size and configuration set out under the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
"It is with great regret that we have had to make redundancies to deliver the reduction in the size of the armed forces, but unfortunately they were unavoidable due to the size of the defence deficit that this Government inherited. Although smaller, our armed forces will be more flexible and agile to reflect the challenges of the future with the protection and equipment they need."
The MoD said personnel selected for redundancy would be told face to face.
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