Lord Dannatt: Armed Forces need another 5,000 regulars

photo Richard Harvey

Lord Dannatt said events in Syria and Ukraine showed how the strategic landscape had changed since the Government's 2010 defence review

08 Apr 2014 By Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent

A former head of the Army has said Britain must have another 5,000 regulars to show it takes its defence responsibilities seriously.

The Government should roll back Armed Forces cuts and recruit another 5,000 regular soldiers, sailors and airmen, a former head of the Army has said.

Lord Dannatt said new threats from Vladimir Putin and the civil war in Syria had left the Coalition’s cost-cutting defence reforms outdated.

He said there were also “genuine concerns” over whether the Army could meet its plan to train and recruit 30,000 reservists to make up for the loss of 20,000 regulars by 2020.

He told the House of Lords: “I believe there’s an increasingly strong case to uplift the manning of our regular Armed Forces by some 5,000 posts."

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