UK Army, navy to shed 2,600 staff in initial job cuts

The British government fleshed out details of planned redundancies across the army and navy on Monday as a top commander warned the military could struggle to cope with future demands if extra funding was not forthcoming. Announcing the lay-offs Commodore Jonathan Woodcock, head of pay and manning, said the British army would lose 1,000 personnel and the navy 1,600 in the first of four rounds of lay-offs to meet cuts outlined in a defence review in October.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) announced plans to lay-off 2,700 staff last month in a similar staggered programme of cuts. "The Strategic Defence and Security Review announced the capabilities we require going forward in the future and this means getting the right people with the right balance of skills," Woodcock told reporters.
"Put very simply: less kit means fewer people," he said of the military's transformation, which is to be completed by 2015. The government said last month it would make about 11,000 of its armed forces redundant as it cuts defence spending under measures designed to rein in a record budget deficit running at about 10 percent of national output.
Britain is reducing the size of its army, navy and air force by a total of 17,000 over four years and some of those job losses will be achieved by cutting recruitment to get the forces down to the required level. The latest round of job losses came as one senior military commander voiced concerns over the military's ability to cope with a growing range of missions in the face of defence cuts.
Britain has 10,000 troops fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and has committed considerable air fire power to policing a no-fly zone in Libya. The head of the RAF warned the service ran the risk of being overstretched without more investment over the coming years.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper on Monday, Air Chief Marshal Stephen Dalton, head of the RAF, highlighted the demands being placed on the military by saying the RAF planned to conduct operations in Libya for at least six months. He said without "genuine increases" in spending the RAF would find it "very difficult to maintain levels of capability" adding that "it's a heck of a lot to be doing at one time".
Woodcock said that both the army and navy would first seek out volunteers for the planned reductions, but that some job losses would need to be on a compulsory basis. Staff in both services are to be informed by September of potential job losses.
He said frontline operations in Afghanistan and Libya would not be affected by any redundancies and that units for the chop had already been identified as surplus to future operations. Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey said no personnel preparing for, deployed on, or returning from combat operations or on post-tour leave would face compulsory redundancy.