The Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill has announced the publication today of its Special Report on the Armed Forces Bill. The Committee was tasked by the House of Commons to scrutinise the Bill which makes various changes to existing Military Law.

Repatriation ceremonies for those killed in operational theatres will move to RAF Brize Norton by 1 September 2011 the Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has announced today as expected. Fuller details from the Ministry of Defence:

The House of Commons Defence Committee has announced a short inquiry into the work of the Service Complaints Commissioner. Before taking evidence in the Autumn from the Service Complaints Commissioner, Dr Susan Atkins, the Committee has invited written submissions from interested individuals and organisations, which must be submitted by Friday 7 September 2012. UPDATE: Written evidence was duly submitted on BAFF's behalf, and will be published in due course.

The armed forces are set to lose one quarter of their lawyers, in a series of cuts that lawyers say could directly impact frontline troops. The Guardian reports that:

(UKPA News) The Duchess of Cornwall has met chaplains deploying to Afghanistan during a visit to the Royal Naval Chaplaincy Service annual conference:

Defence Secretary Liam Fox has told an international think tank meeting in Geneva that pulling British troops from Afghanistan before 2015 would boost militants everywhere, because only by then would British forces, working with the U.S.-led coalition, have achieved their security aims. He also told the IISS that British defence planners conducting a review of military priorities had to take account of the possibility that its forces might have to intervene again elsewhere in the world.

The Guardian reports that the British Forces Broadcasting Service, for years a lifeline for members of the armed forces and their families, is to be put out to tender to competitive bidders. The report continues:

In further speculation about the outcome of the SDSR, the Daily Telegraph reports that tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen face the axe after ministers concluded that reducing the number of uniformed personnel in the Armed Forces was the best way to save money:

The Royal Navy is dangerously weak, risking the "silent principles" of the UK's national security unless the future fleet is restored and adequately sized, according to a new article in the latest Journal of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). The article claims that Britain needs at least 10 more frigates, and that ships in the current fleet were nearing the end of their useful life.

General Sir Richard Dannatt's autobiography is entitled "Leading from the Front" but it also might equally be called "The Enemy Within". The autobiography is to be published on 16/9/10 and is being serialised in The Sunday Telegraph. The paper's Defence Correspondent Sean Rayment writes that: