Britain's armed forces may shrink by a fifth in the next six years as governments seek to slash the country's budget deficit and the cost of existing defence commitments grow, a military think-tank predicted on Wednesday. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) suggests the number of trained military personnel may fall from 175,000 in 2010 to about 142,000 by 2016 because of budget constraints.
Professor Malcolm Chalmers said the dire state of the country's finances during the recession meant the defence budget could be cut by between 10 and 15 percent in real terms. A continuing annual cost growth of 1-2 percent for existing military operations and capabilities would exert added financial pressure, he said.
The cuts outlined in a report entitled "Capability Cost Trends: Implications for the Defence Review" would fall on ground forces, aircraft and naval strength. "Unless defence is ring-fenced it will face cuts of the sort of magnitude we are talking about," Chalmers told BBC radio.