The Ministry of Defence has set aside £47.5m to promote armed forces recruitment despite plans to cut 17,000 troops over the next four years - a funding decision attacked as illogical by Labour.
Minister Andrew Robathan revealed the figures in a parliamentary answer on Tuesday, saying that the overall budget for advertising and marketing is £51.4m, with £47.5m set aside for "approvals for armed forces recruitment activity".
"Despite reductions made in armed forces personnel, the services are still required to recruit some new personnel to ensure that skill sets and future requirements are met", said Robathan.
In the last year 3,620 soldiers from the military, navy and RAF have been sacked. Shadow defence minister Jim Murphy said the figures seemed "illogical".
"Many people will see the irony in the Government sacking thousands of service personnel at the same time as spending tens of millions of pounds on recruitment. To those who have been made redundant this will seem very illogical."
The ministry of defence faces 8% cuts under the strategic defence and security review announced in 2010, as part of an attempt to cut a £43bn funding black hole.