More than 4,000 soldiers have been told they have lost their jobs in the latest round of Army redundancies, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
A total of 4,480 Army personnel have been made redundant in the latest tranche of job losses as the Government tries to reduce the number of regulars to 82,000 by 2018.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said the move is necessary to help balance the books but insisted operational capability would not be affected.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed there will be no further reductions in manpower in the next round of spending cuts.
Announcing the latest tranche of redundancies - originally thought to involve 5,300 soldiers - he said: "Today we have announced the third tranche of redundancies as we restructure the British Army to the size and configuration set out under the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
"It is with great regret that we have had to make redundancies to deliver the reduction in the size of the armed forces, but unfortunately they were unavoidable due to the size of the defence deficit that this Government inherited.
"Although smaller, our armed forces will be more flexible and agile to reflect the challenges of the future with the protection and equipment they need. They will continue to be the bedrock of our society and provide extremely rewarding and exciting careers for future recruits."
The MoD said personnel selected for redundancy would be told face to face by their commanding officer. It said it had done everything to avoid "non-applicant" redundancies, and 84% of those losing their jobs in the latest tranche had applied for redundancy.
Those who applied for voluntary redundancy will leave on or before December 17 this year, and those who did not will leave on or before June 17 2014.
Soldiers who did not apply and are currently serving, preparing for or recovering from operations where they receive an operational allowance, such as Afghanistan, are exempt, as are those recovering from serious injuries sustained on operations.
