UK details 5,300 army redundancies

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed details of the latest tranche of personnel cuts to the British Army, following an official announcement on 22 January.

In total, the MoD announced reductions of 5,300 troops in the third tranche of planned cuts to the British Army initiated under the UK's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) of 2010.

General Sir Peter Wall, chief of the general staff, said: "The army is unfortunately reducing to 82,000 by 2015 and this tranche of redundancy is essential to achieving that."

The initial SDSR decided to cut the British Army from 102,000 to 95,000 by 2015, a reduction of 7,000 personnel. In July 2011 this reduction was significantly increased to a total force level of only 82,000 by 2020. In order to meet this reduction target it is expected that a further tranche of redundancies will be required.

Speaking of the announcement, UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: "Unfortunately redundancies are unavoidable due to the size of the defence deficit that this government inherited and the consequent scale of downsizing required in the army."