MoD to review size and scope of British Army
The British Army is to be slimmed down in a radical overhaul of homeland defences, according to reports.
The famous Royal Scots, the Black Watch, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the Prince of Wales’s Regiment in Yorkshire are lined up for disbandment, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
Overall, ten regiments could face the axe, with more than 9,000 soldiers facing redundancy once troops are withdrawn from Northern Ireland.
Soldiers in Northern Ireland are to be reduced from 14,500 to 5000 by April 2005.
At least one of the two Gurkha battalions may also have to be axed.
And a battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment could go.
The Ministry of Defence said the report was mere speculation.
A White Paper on defence is to be published in the next fortnight.
Tory defence spokesman Nicholas Soames told the Sunday Telegraph: “This is an absolute disgrace. There are no circumstances that would merit a cut to the infantry at a time when the world has never seemed more dangerous.”
