More than 4,000 members of the armed forces, including 400 Ghurkas, are to lose their jobs in the latest wave of cuts, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
The cuts, which will affect up to 2,900 members of the Army, 1,000 Royal Air Force personnel and 300 members of the Royal Navy, form the second tranche of the redundancy programme set out in the government's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) and are intended to help plug the £38 billion black hole in the defence budget.
Defence secretary Philip Hammond insisted the government had "no choice" but to axe the posts, though he insisted the armed forces would remain "agile".
"The size of the fiscal deficit we inherited left us no choice but to reduce the size of the armed forces - while reconfiguring them to ensure they remain agile, adaptable and effective," he said.
He added: "The redundancy programme will not impact adversely on the current operations in Afghanistan, where our armed forces continue to fight so bravely on this country's behalf."
Included in the redundancies are 400 Gurkhas. The 3,500-strong brigade was seen to be particularly vulnerable as it is considered to be over-manned by military planners.
It has already lost 140 troops in the first round of redundancies and it is reported that the MoD wants to bring the total down to around 3,000.
Ironically the Gurkhas look set to have lost out now as a result of improvements in their terms of service following a celebrated campaign led by actress Joanna Lumley.
Under the changes, the Gurkhas can now serve a maximum of 22 years - rather than 15 years previously - bringing them in line with the rest of the Army. The result has been to swell their numbers with soldiers who would otherwise have left staying on for an additional seven years.
The redundancies are expected to mark the end of the pain for the Navy and RAF, who are believed to have calculated they can now get to their SDSR manning targets through natural wastage and restricting recruitment.
In December it was revealed that more than 1,000 senior military officials were in line to get the axe over the next eight years under confidential MoD cost-cutting plans.
However the Army is expected to need further redundancies if it is to reduce its number from 100,000 to 82,000 by 2020 as set out in the SDSR.