Britain announced one of its biggest peacetime military overhauls on Wednesday, cutting tanks, ships and thousands of personnel in an effort to adapt its forces to tackle modern threats including terrorism.
The shakeup - at a time when Britain's army is over-stretched in operations from Kosovo to Iraq - reflects a post-Cold War shift in emphasis towards rapid reaction forces capable of swift deployment to world hotspots.
"The transformation that I am setting out today will help to ensure that our armed forces can continue to respond effectively to the global challenges they are likely to face," Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told parliament.
Critics, however, say the cuts will leave Britain's armed forces ill-equipped to face future challenges.
"Please explain who the idiot was who thinks you can cut the infantry at a time when the pressure on them is enormous," said Bruce George, Labour chairman of a parliamentary committee on defence.
In the past five years, Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched operations in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq, which, with 45,000 personnel, was the biggest deployment since Korea 50 years ago.
Wednesday's announcements will have no immediate impact on those operations and Britain will still invest 29.7 billion pounds ($54.7 billion) this year on defence, rising to 33.5 billion pounds in 2007/2008, leaving it Europe's top defence spender.
Overall, the armed forces will see a roughly 10 percent personnel reduction with the air force bearing the brunt. The army will be cut by about 1,500 to about 102,000 in four years.
Hoon said the cuts included the navy's three oldest Type 42 destroyer ships and three Type 23 frigates.
Britain plans to use the money it saves on troops and heavy equipment to upgrade technology to help combat terrorism.
Hoon said his new policy would focus on ways "to meet the threat of international terrorism and the forces of instability in the modern world."
He singled out "network enabled capability", technology which links sensors and weapon systems, for more investment.
But critics say British defence spending will never match Washington's and experience in Iraq and Afghanistan shows Britain is best at low-tech peacekeeping and "peace enforcement" which require boots on the ground rather than hi-tech systems.
"You cannot get away from the fact that what our armed forces do best is getting out of helicopters, fixing bayonets and killing the enemy," said independent defence analyst Paul Beaver.
"Time will tell if he has got it right ... These are the most radical changes since the middle of the 19th century."
The opposition Conservative Party accused Hoon of introducing a "madhouse defence policy".
"Isn't he taking his most reckless step so far: cutting tanks and ships and aircraft to make immediate savings whilst making vague promises that new weapons will be delivered at some point in the dim and distant future" said Nicholas Soames, Conservative spokesman for the armed forces.
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