Troops’ morale takes a further hit amid Army cuts speculation

Speculation that one of the unit’s battalions may be axed or merged, with the loss of 650 soldiers, comes as a fresh blow after the tragic loss of Private Gregg Stone, whose body was repatriated yesterday.

The 20-year-old, from Hull, was killed in a rescue mission on Sunday while serving with the 3rd Battalion in Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday confirmed whole units “inevitably will be lost or will merge” as the Army sheds 20,000 personnel by 2020.

The cull will mean relying more on foreign forces, part-time reserves and private contractors, he told the Royal United Services Institute’s land warfare conference.

Barnsley Central MP and former Army Major Dan Jarvis said the plans were “dangerously flawed” and a blow to the morale of troops in Afghanistan.

“All of this is creating a significant amount of uncertainty and doubt,” said the Labour MP.

“We will have soldiers going out on patrol now wondering if their battalion will even exist in 18 months’ time.

“The reality is that the level of personal threat is very high at the moment, and the last thing people need to worry about is whether their unit is going to be amalgamated or scrapped altogether.”

Mr Jarvis said he accepted there had to be cuts but relying on the private sector and reserve forces was not the best course of action.

“Anyone who understands the way the defence community works and operates will have significant concerns about integrating private sector companies into military operations,” he said.

“The reality is there are probably some areas of functionality which could be hived off, but it is a major strategic shift to go down that road and I don’t believe it is underpinned by a logical argument.”

The Army is set to shrink from 102,000 soldiers to 82,000 under plans set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, with the latest round of redundancies due to be announced next week.

Mr Hammond said there was no question of abandoning the regimental system, but a slimmed-down Army would mean an increased reliance on private military contractors and part-time reservists, whose numbers are set to double to 30,000.

In future, the reserves would take on some tasks currently carried out by regular troops, requiring greater commitment by individual reservists to training and preparation, he said.

“The integrated Army concept means, for instance, that light infantry battalions will be reinforced on deployment through a permanent partnership with reserve units,” he said.

“And for less complex tasks a reserve unit could, in the future, form the basis of an operational deployment with augmentations from regular forces – particularly on homeland resilience duties.”

Mr Hammond also hinted Northern regiments could be most vulnerable to cuts as a result of demographic changes in their traditional recruiting grounds.

“Against a background of an increasing UK population overall, it is projected there will be around 12 per cent fewer males by 2020 in the typical infantry recruiting age range,” he said. “Although all regions face this decline, there is local variation: in particular, the South and South-East of England will see the lowest decline.

“So while we are determined to maintain an effective regimental system, it must be based on the realities of today, and the primacy of capability. That means focusing on analysis of recruitment performance, demographic trends and future recruiting needs.”

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