'British Army must not be cut below 82,000

A major reduction of 20,000 soldiers will be achieved, but the head of the British Army warns against more manpower cuts

General Sir Peter Wall, the Chief of the General Staff, told reporters that reducing the size of the regular army from 102,000 to 82,000 had already been "challenging".

"We are going to get there," he said. "At that point we will be able to draw an affordability line."

His comments came just days after Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned the Ministry of Defence could not afford to make yet more major cuts to the forces.

"We won't be able to make significant further cuts without eroding military capability," Hammond had told the BBC.

"We have some very challenging targets ahead of us to deliver the outcome of the last spending review and I'm clear that we won't be able to deliver big further savings."

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