The UK's Troop Cut Proposals Would Leave the Smallest British Army Since Before the Napoleonic Wars

Military chiefs have drawn up a plan to cut the armed forces by more than 14,000

reports the Times Defence Editor Deborah Haynes, thus leaving Britain with its smallest army since before the Napoleonic era.

Military chiefs have drawn up a plan to cut the armed forces by more than 14,000 and combine elite units of paratroopers and Royal Marines to save money, The Times has learnt.

The three sets of proposed cuts presented to Gavin Williamson when he took over as defence secretary from Sir Michael Fallon [were] revealed [in early January].

The proposals — described by a Whitehall source as “ugly, ugly or ugly” — include cutting the army by 11,000 soldiers and losing 2,000 Royal Marines and sailors and 1,250 airmen. The total size of the regular armed forces is about 137,000. The army has a target size of 82,000 but at present it numbers fewer than 78,000. …

• Armed Forces
• UK politics