UK & World News
- 4 July 2012, 23:52
Revealed: The Infantry Battalions To Be Axed
Sky News has obtained details of the five infantry battalions that are to be scrapped as part of Government cuts.
They are 5 Scots - The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, one battalion of The Yorkshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, 3rd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (The Staffords) and 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh Regiment.
Sky's defence and security editor Sam Kiley said: "While this is a cultural blow particularly to the people who have served in these units in the past, nowadays they are part of bigger regiments in any case.
"Where the controversy will lie is with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and The Royal Welsh because they will be down to one battalion regiment."
He added: "Back in 2006, the whole idea of the amalgamations that we saw then was that the army did not end up with single battalion regiments that were unwieldy and very difficult to bring good officers and good men on because they got stovepiped in this one institution."
The battalions will be disbanded under planned reductions to the army from more than 100,000 troops to 82,000 by 2020.
The controversial reforms are being seen as a revolution and their success will depend on the ability of the army to recruit 30,000 reservists.
The army plans to lean heavily on reserves and they will be expected to shoulder a third of the burden of long-term operations.
what do you think?
stephen
can any one on here tell me who has the lowest GDP deficit out of Germany France Italy japan USA UK who has the lowest people on here are always saying they know what they are talking about . come on
Michael Cooke
That would be japan buddy, i think the anger from people is they dont realise how bad finances are in the uk, but to be honest 1 mp's wages is equal to 7 new troops, 2500 MP's = 17500 troops= £18000 Per troop = 22% tax/national ins per troop =£70million back into the goverment, as opposed to thr MP's who pay no tax and claim almost everything they spend on expenses.
stephen
Michael thanks for trying .but your wrong the answer is uk . and that came out of Osborne mouth him self . he also says in 4 years time Germany will have the lowest .the vid is on YouTube .
Adrian Wagstaff
GDP deficit? I don't know. I would guess Italy? Either Italy or USA? Could even be Japan. My dad was in the army. I think we need an army. People even learn a lot being in the army. My dad learned some useful things being in the army and we got to see other countries. It is useful to have a British military presence overseas, I think. If we don't have an army, Britain might as well just die 'cause it won't be able to defend itself. By army I mean the whole military. Not just the army. Army, Navy, Air Force. Look at the history of our military! What did they all fight for? For this country/ies. You can't just ignore the history of the British military.
brian foster
We can afford to give 12.7 billion pounds to overseas aid,much of which is wasted but we can not keep our Armed Forces to there current level. This is the economics of a mad man and we still waste lives and money on an illegal war. Those who are responcible for this and the earlier wars will rot in hell but it would be more satisfactory if they were also judged here on earth.
El Bubsio
Whilst it's obviously sad to see more people losing their jobs, I don't think we need a massive military these days. The threats which face us now are different than those of 50 or 100 years ago. It's incredibly unlikely that this country would be attacked by a military force. I'm not talking about terrorist cells (who are dealt with by the police and secret services), but an actual military of another country. The only real reason for keeping our military forces so high is in case we wish to invade another country.
Lorgar Aurelian
Do you know anything of regimental traditions? I didn't think so.
David Wragg
Rubbish. Learn some history!
herewegoagain10
We'll have little more than a militia by the time this lot's finished. Can they not see that things change very quickly and we need a standing army that's trained and ready. Our soldiers must spend more time looking over their shoulder to see who's going next than fighting.
shirley sutton
It's disgusting that we're cutting the armed forces yet giving money put abroad in aid - were leaving ourselves wide open and it's hardly a thank you to the troops for pitting their lives on the line in affhanistan and Iraq
David Wragg
Well said. Our priorities are completely wrong. Many of the countries receiving aid have massive arms programmes - India and Pakistan to name but two.
Philip Marsh
I for one am totally disgusted by this decision , the history and bravery that our armed forces have given us over the years is second to none. Its a massive kick in the teeth and our so called govenment should hang there heads in shame. Terrorist and rouge state leaders must be laughing at us right now. SHAME ON YOU!
David Wragg
I agree - why on earth have you so many who disagree?
Roberta Grieve
Boy. Do they have a thing about the highland regiments.-----Jimmy@Brioghton
chris
Well it will suit the Welsh and Scots nationalists well enough! Given the chance they would be rid of all military bases as they are opposed to them.
stephen
errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
aa aa
Yesterday, i posted a question, and was quite rightly rebuked. It was poor timing , and absolutely and totally insensitive of me . I apologise. The question was " Why do people join the army". Ok, i was well out of order, as the post was related to naming three soldiers killed by scumbag so called "green on blue". i'm sorry, but i have to repeat the question, only based on the grounds that we are all just ammo , for the rich mans cannon, which todays announcement has demonstrated perfectly. Sincere apologies for yesterdays comment,but what a difference 24 hours makes. Has the penny dropped a bit further today, i wonder. R.I.P. to those three latest victims, and my sympathy to their families. Jaimeson Simeon, i hope you are still safe in your job,as a sergeant , yet i honestly think your attitude towards your almighty monarch, may be somewhat diminished, today.
jeanne
It's high time we just stuck to de-fence rather than offence so can't see why the cutbacks are such a problem - there could be so much done to improve the infrastructure of the UK - AT HOME - that I just don't buy into fighting US-led wars anyway - they are illegal and immoral.
Thomas Barker
We lost the Americas because we had only 19 serviceable warships the rest had rotten hulls, eventually these ships were copper bottomed but it was too late. Guess how many modern warships we have, around the 20 mark, sailing close to the wind again!
Lorgar Aurelian
I'm ex 1RRF and this is the death knell of my old regiment. A 1 battalion regiment. The most ridiculous thing i ever heard. Still, gotta keep the 'aid' money flowing to countries with bigger and better armed forces than ours. RIP Royal Regt of Fusiliers.
Lorgar Aurelian
Also The Rifles have 5 battalions i believe plus attached TA. How does it make sense to have a 5 battalion regiment while cutting others to 1?
Ben Ralph
The Condems want the Police to rely heavily on 'community support' officers now they want the army to rely heavily on reservists. Only one thing happens when you do a service on the cheap.
EQINOX187 .
Looks over the coments and sees the Poorly informed minus brigade have been let out again! To those saying we dont need an army anyway. Well i would say go and learn your history better yet turn on the news and see just how unpredictable this world and people in it are. Look back at world war 2 and that no one predicted that would happen but it did and we became a target now look at the falklands again that came as a compleat seprise that another country would attack brittish soil openly and in a suposidly modern time but they did. So to say we live in a modern world where we all freinds and no one will attack us so we dont need an army is well pritty stupid and poorly informed coments. Much like coments like if there was a terrorist attack our police would deal with it... I meen realy what are these people smoking do they realy think a few thousand police armed with metal sticks would offer any resistance to an orgonised terrorist group armed with AK47s running through our streets? I bet your saying well that will never happen well i say how do you know its happend in other countrys and anything is posable and nothing including security is guaranteed. Heck our police couldent even handle rioters armed with sticks. Fact is we need the army to help suport our allies and also and more importaintly to defend our own country in the event something did happen in the unpredictable future. Having a strong army also presents us as a hard target where as reducing our army presents us as a soft target for any future agresser. Think of it this way you have home insurance and say to yourself well i have never been broken into and it will never happen in this safe town so im going to cancel it. The very next day your house gets broken into and everything taken would you not then feal rather stupid for asuming to much?
Stuart Harley
..solders on the dole, who cares, the money needs to be spent on our hospitals and GOOD managers to run them, not very poor managers who close things down !
Raymond Castle
British army? What British army? We now don't have the amount of soldiers, armour and other associated vehicles, units etc that constitute the name of Army. I read somewhere that our Army is now the equivalent of a Corps (I could be wrong though). Ridiculous!
David Wragg
6:02pm on 4/7/2012
This is disgraceful, and the fact that the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers is amongst them shows that the government is not simply choosing those units with a poor recruitment record. The coalition is so blinded by the size of our deficit that it is ignoring the importance of defence and the armed forces in a world that is as unsafe as it ever was. I only hope that we don't have to pay the price for their treason.