Britain declares rigorous military cutbacks

In a proposal to streamline its armed forces and help cut its daunting levels of national debt, the British government on Tuesday announced plans to cut its military personnel by 10 percent, scrap 40 percent of the army's artillery and tanks, withdraw all of its troops from Germany within 10 years, and cut 25,000 civilian jobs in its Defence Ministry.

In unveiling his planned Defence and Security Review, the first since the 9/11 attacks, Prime Minister David Cameron said the cuts were part of an effort to reconfigure a military that he called "overstretched and ill-prepared" to meet the unconventional warfare challenges of the future. He added that Britain proposed to remain a significant military power, with a military budget that would still be the fourth highest in the world, after those of the United States, China and Russia.

"Britain has punched above its weight in the world, and we should have no fewer goals for our country in the decades to come," he said.

The new defence bearing also calls for the immediate scrapping of the Ark Royal, Britain's only aircraft carrier skilled of launching fixed-wing jets, along with the entire fleet of Harrier jump jets operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force since the 1970s. The demise of the Ark Royal means that Britain will have a 10-year gap without a carrier-borne strike force until one of two new aircraft carriers is equipped with a latest generation of Joint Strike Fighters in 2020.

The government said that it would go ahead with plans to put up both carriers at a cost of about $9.5 billion only because it would be even pricier to cancel one of them, with both already under building.