The Armed Forces face a cull of mid-ranking officers with the forthcoming redundancies of 2,100 personnel to focus disproportionately on those between the ranks of major and colonel.
The Army and Navy will today set out redundancy terms for a first tranche of 561 soldiers and 1,600 sailors — some of whom may be serving in Afghanistan and Libya — in a first round of defence cuts in September.
The three Services need to find 17,000 job losses by 2015 and an additional 25,000 civil servant job losses. Last month the RAF became the first to announce redundancy quotas — it will lose 1,020 personnel within six months, including 170 trainee pilots. Defence sources told The Times that the Ministry of Defence will attempt to meet the cuts quotas with volunteers before moving to forced redundancies.
About 400 naval officers and 150 Army officers will go as the Armed Forces attempt to adopt a leaner ranks structure. Hardest hit will be naval commanders and captains and army lieutenant-colonels and colonels.
“We are relatively overborne in those positions,” said one defence source. “But if we are too enthusiastic cutting back, you won’t have so many people coming through (to senior ranks). We are living a little on the fat of previous times.”
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There had been speculation that senior ranks — brigadier and above — would face similar cutbacks.
The funding crisis deepened when the head of the RAF became the first of the Service chiefs to speak out. Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton warned that the RAF will need “genuine increases” in its budget in the coming years to “maintain levels of capability”. He told the Guardian: “On current planning, we can continue in Afghanistan, the Falklands and Libya with what we have got. But that does bring you nearer the point that you have just about exhausted the bag. It’s a heck of a lot to be doing at one time.”
Britain’s Forces are widely seen as top-heavy, with more than 250 generals equating to one brass hat for every 400 personnel. The US model is one to about 1,200, although British officials argue that this owes something to the relative scale of the two forces. There are currently 47 senior British officers of three-star rank — lieutenant-general, vice-admiral and air marshal — with combined salaries of £6.8 million.
The Navy now has more admirals than ships. However, senior officers said that the most senior ranks would not be hard hit. Service personnel in ranks and trades that are set for reduction will receive letters today alerting them that their jobs are under threat.
The Times understands that volunteers for redundancy will receive nine months’ severance pay. There is an admission among senior officers that the redundancies are likely to become increasingly contentious, particularly among personnel who are close to qualifying for the Army half-pension after 16 years of service.
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Those forced into redundancy short of this milestone, which is worth about £12-15,000 a year, will not receive a pension and would contemplate the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds over the course of a lifetime.
Defence sources said that the MoD will introduce a buffer to protect people from redundancy if they are within two years of the 16-year mark.
Armed Forces welfare associations report deep anxiety among Service families about the impending cuts.
Last night the MoD denied reports that those on operations at present could face compulsory redundancy. In a statement, Andrew Robathan, Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, said: “On the dates redundancy notices are issued, no personnel preparing for, deployed on, or returning from combat operations and in receipt of post-tour leave will be made compulsorily redundant.”