The Army is set to scrap a series of training exercises as commanders look to cut costs by £30million, with Labour continuing to resist calls for a rise in defence spending.
The decision follows Chancellor John Healey’s move to abandon a commitment to lift Armed Forces funding to three per cent of GDP by 2030, leaving the Army under mounting pressure over its ability to prepare for combat.
Among the major exercises now cancelled is a six-week war game due to begin in Wales next week, which had been expected to involve Challenger 2 tanks and Apache attack helicopters.
According to a memo circulated to commanders, no further large-scale training involving groups of 90 troops or more will take place during the current financial year.
Training will instead be limited to smaller units, although exercises using drones are understood to be continuing.
One source told The Sun: “Everything is cancelled. Commanding officers have 600 blokes with nothing to do.”
The cutbacks have drawn comparisons with 1973, when the international fuel crisis forced the armed forces to reduce consumption by ten per cent.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting arrives for a Cabinet meeting on September 1
Former Defence Secretary John Healey pictured wearing army fatigues alongside Sir Keir Starmer
Mr Healey had included a plea for the country to set the three per cent target in his resignation speech as defence secretary when he quit Sir Keir Starmer’s government in June.
Controversially, his October Budget is expected to shelve plans for defence spending to reach that figure by the end of the decade.
Newly appointed Defence Secretary Wes Streeting will now be under pressure after former SAS commander Richard Williams branded Mr Healey a ‘lizard’ for dropping the pledge.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has also refused to say how or when his government will reach the critical benchmark.
On the Government’s current projections, defence spending is expected to peak at 2.7 per cent of GDP by 2030.
By comparison, Germany expects to hit 3.5 per cent of GDP by then, the target Nato member states are supposed to reach by 2035.
The cancelling of training programmes also comes after Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Richard Knighton, told a parliamentary committee that without a significant hike in the Ministry of Defence’s running costs budget, operations will also be axed.
On Thursday night, former tank commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said: ‘This is absolutely bonkers. I have had it confirmed that this order is in effect.
A Challenger 2 battle tank pictured during the NATO Spring Storm exercise in Estonia in 2024
Apache helicopter gunship exercises as part of a six-week war game scheduled to start in Wales next week were cancelled
‘It amounts to an incredible piece of self-harm. The Russians will realise that an untrained British Army is no deterrent.’
The Sun also reported On Thursday night how the Army-wide directive has left soldiers ‘twiddling their thumbs’. The Royal Navy and the RAF have also been ordered to reduce expenditure.
Former Army chief General Sir Patrick Sanders told the paper the decision was ‘unbelievably short-sighted’.
The Mail has also learned how submarine engineers are buying equipment themselves online due to shortages in their stores.
In 2024 the Mail revealed how pay rises for troops introduced by the recently elected Labour government led to exercises being scrapped.
No additional revenues were secured from the Treasury to pay for the increased wages, meaning £400million had to be found from inside the MoD.
The move resulted in cancelled exercises and military units being barred from hiring vehicles. Ammunition was withdrawn from regiments conducting training.
According to financial studies, increasing UK defence spending to three per cent of GDP is expected to cost the Government £10billion annually on top of the current budget.
Reaching Nato’s target of 3.5 per cent by 2035 is expected to cost £25billion on top of additional expenditure.
The cancellation notice came as Russian president Vladimir Putin issued a thinly veiled threat to strike this country.
When asked whether the UK was in the Kremlin’s sights, he said: ‘It is a secret.’
Tory defence spokesman James Cartlidge said: ‘Burnham is dodging the tough decisions and our Armed Forces are paying the price.’
An Army spokesperson said: ‘Our training continues and we are prioritising activity that contributes most directly to readiness, deployability and operational effectiveness.
‘We are also investing £2 billion to transform training for the British Army over the next 15 years.’
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