A story in the Guardian claims that with the MoD planning to sell off its 178-acre vehicle complex at Ashchurch in Gloucestershire, in order to raise money, one of the options under consideration is to move some tanks and other armoured vehicles to storage in Germany.

The UK is in the process of withdrawing thousands of troops from Germany, at the same time as thousands of military vehicles could be heading in the opposite direction.

A Labour MP claims that the military's senior officers are being protected from the worst effects of the defence cuts at the expense of lower ranks. From a report in the Guardian:

A BFBS news report says that thousands of members of the Armed Forces could lose their chance to vote this year if they don't fill out a voter registration form.

Every year service personnel across the UK and away on deployment can't have their say in elections because they don't register to vote in time.

BAFF reported last week that 45% of armed forces voters who think they are registered are not properly registered after all.

The Telegraph says that "senior Army sources" have spoken of their increasing concern that the Territorial Army is "not fit for purpose" and will leave Britain's ability to defend itself hamstrung:

In a scathing criticism of defence cuts the Public Account Committee said delaying the building of two aircraft carriers and the Astute class submarines had already increased the Ministry of Defence's costs by more than £5 billion in the long term. A report in the Daily Telegraph continues:

According to the Army Rumour Service website 'ARRSE', there is a plan for a small expedition to Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) in June 2012 to reinstall two memorials to soldiers of the Royal Gloucestershire Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (RGBW) who died during the Regiment's first operational tour in 1994, when Battalion Tactical HQ, A and B Companies were based in Gorazde. Link to full details at the bottom of this article.

Erskine, the famous Scottish veterans' charity, is reportedly having to cut back on part of its commercial operation which provides valuable wotk for veterans. The Daily Record reports that:

Dr Rhonda Cornum was one of the first generation of women to serve on the frontline in the first Gulf War. Captured by the Iraqi army, it was her ability to withstand that experience that convinced her of the importance of teaching resilience to today's serving soldiers. Less than a week after retiring as assistant US Surgeon General, she's been speaking about resilience training in London. She told Forces News that when she was shot down as part of a rescue mission in 1991 she was certain she was going to die. ForcesNews reports (07 Feb):

Three quarters of service personnel believe that they are registered to vote but according to the latest research, 44% of those are not properly registered after all.

The Mirror has a story about an infantry soldier who was medically discharged from the Army for service-induced hearing loss. He has received other benefits to which he was entitled, but now his application for compensation under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme has been refused by the SPVA - because the service-induced hearing loss is assessed at less than 20%.

When the 20% threshold was imposed by the Ministry of Defence in the 1990's under the old War Pensions scheme, the justification was that compensation should be targeted more at those with the most serious injuries. The new Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS), for injuries on or after 6 April 2005, is thankfully more generous than the old scheme but the 20% hearing loss theshold remains.

The ruling remains controversial, because 20% hearing loss is enough to get in the way of your work, domestic and social activities on every single day of life.

But actually discharging a soldier for service-induced hearing loss, and then dismissing his injury claim as in effect trivial, is straight from the pages of Catch-22. It's time to have another look at this ruling.