Thousands of troops should be forced into the reserves and hundreds of weapons mothballed for Britain to make defence savings, according to a think tank study by a professor of defence engineering. The Daily Telegraph reports that:
Because there is "no silver bullet" to make efficiency savings in the MoD Britain should adopt a radical strategy based on the premise that the chances of an attack from another state are very slim, according to Prof David Kirkpatrick's report.
In Making Ends Meet he sets out the steps required by the Armed Forces to reduce the defence budget by £3 billion from its current £37 billion total.
The paper recommends that British forces which provide homeland defence should be "transferred from regular to reserve status; their equipment mothballed and their personnel given only part-time training".
The only forces to be kept in the regular military should be those on or preparing for expeditionary operations or involved in the nuclear deterrent.