The report of the independent Covenant Task Force led by Professor Hew Strachan was released by the Government on 08 Dec 2010.

Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Moore, Chairman of the respected Forces Pension Society, has told The Times that the report is "incredibly wet and feeble."

The Daily Telegraph's Defence Correspondent writes that the Army is set to lose its ability to fight large scale tanks battles under radical plans being drawn up to slash its fleet of armoured vehicles:

Children and young people's rights groups are calling for a change in the law to end the recruitment of 16 and 17-year-olds into the UK armed forces. Their call comes ahead of the second reading of the Armed Forces Bill, which the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, will present to the House of Commons tomorrow (10 January). More from the Ekklesia think tank:

The Ministry of Defence stands accused of "politicising" the military covenant, under plans in the Armed Forces Bill to scrap an independent review of the Government's progress in honouring the nation's pact with servicemen and women. According to an Independent on Sunday report:

The government has released more details of the university scholarship scheme for children of British servicemen and women from England, Scotland and Wales killed on active duty.

The new Armed Forces Bill has been presented in Parliament, without any debate today. It is excitingly described as a "Bill to continue the Armed Forces Act 2006; to amend that Act and other enactments relating to the armed forces and the Ministry of Defence Police; to amend the Visiting Forces Act 1952; to enable judge advocates to sit in civilian courts; to repeal the Naval Medical Compassionate Fund Act 1915; and for connected purposes."

defencemanagement.com reports that military families are set to benefit from £10m of additional funding for their children's education through the introduction of a special 'pupil premium' as the government looks to 'rebuild' the military covenant.

The government is due to unveil a range of measures today to support the armed forces and their families. The measures are in a report commissioned in July into the military covenant to ask what more society could do to support the armed forces and their families. The report by Professor Hew Strachan found that many service families struggled to get a mortgage because they moved so often. UPDATE: The task force report has now been released. See Government to 'rebuild' covenant.

The Sunday Telegraph's Defence and Security Correspondent writes that allowances paid to thousands of members of the armed forces are to be slashed by hundreds of millions of pounds.

BBC News reports (12 Nov 2010) that Downing Street has rejected calls to protect the armed forces from cuts to public sector pensions: