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Frontline troops in Libya and Afghanistan conflicts may face redundancy as job loss alert is issued
Thousands of serving military personnel are to be told on 4 April that they are in line for redundancy as part of £4.7bn of cuts to the Ministry of Defence's budget over four years.
Recipients of the notices may find themselves among more than 2,000 uniformed personnel to be made redundant in September. Members of the armed forces based in the UK, on the front line in Afghanistan and on naval vessels off the coast of Libya could be on the hitlist.
A total of 561 army redundancies, including 150 officers, will be made in September, the Daily Telegraph reported. It added that the navy is expected to announce that about 1,600 job losses to be made at the end of September, with around a third likely to be officers.
Andrew Robathan, a defence minister, said: "That we have to make any armed forces personnel redundant is deeply regrettable and a consequence of the dire economic situation and appalling deficit in the defence budget, that we inherited.
"As we made clear when we announced the programme last month, the redundancies that we are making have been designed to ensure that we have the flexible and balanced forces we need for the future. 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.
"I deprecate whoever has leaked this, since it will lead to confusion and unnecessary concern amongst our valued personnel."
Some 42,000 defence jobs will be cut by 2015 as part of the government's strategic defence and security review (SDSR) which will see defence spending fall by 8% over a four year period
The jobs to go will include 25,000 civilian staff at the MoD, 7,000 in the army and 5,000 in the Royal Navy as well as the RAF.
In March, the RAF became the first of the three armed services to release to staff details of a redundancy programme. It confirmed that 170 of its 512 trainees would go from sites at Cranwell, Lincolnshire; Shawbury, Shropshire; and Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire.
Personnel from the three services will be informed through their chain of command if they are in the first tranche of redundancies in September. Those who volunteer will serve six months' notice before leaving, while non-volunteers will serve 12 months' notice.
