By Vivienne Russell | 7 June 2012
The army will make greater use of reservists in future, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said today.
In a speech to the Royal United Defence Institute, Hammond outlined his vision for Army 2020, a smaller, more flexible and agile force. It will place the army on a more stable financial footing, make best use of resources and ensure better integration with the other armed services and allies, the defence secretary said.
Following the Strategic Defence and Security Review, numbers in the regular army are to be reduced from 102,000 to 82,000. Hammond said this would mean some units being disbanded or merging and acknowledged it was an ‘emotionally charged’ area. But he added: ‘We have to change and adapt – and that means letting go as well as building anew.’
Hammond said that, thanks to the spending cuts made by the coalition government, the defence budget was back in balance ‘for the first time in a generation’.
He added: ‘The wider national interest requires that we build for the future with strict financial discipline. Tackling the fiscal deficit and returning the economy to sustainable growth are themselves strategic imperatives.’
The commissioning of defence equipment, which have long been subject to overspends and delays, would be subject to a new financial discipline, focused more on long-term value than short-term cash value.
‘Efficiency and the successful application of military force are not mutually exclusive concepts,’ the defence secretary said.
Precise details on the future structure of the army haveyet to be finalised and Hammond said that when they were they would be announced in Parliament ‘in the proper way’.
