Army: Number of troops to be cut by 7,000 in shake-up

But the Government insisted yesterday that land forces will still be able to respond flexibly to all threats as forces are eventually reduced to 94,000 by 2020.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We will continue to be one of very few countries able to deploy a self-sustaining properly equipped brigade-sized force anywhere around the world and sustain it indefinitely if needs be.

"And we will be able to put 30,000 into the field for a major, one-off operation."

Mr Cameron said half the 20,000 Army personnel based in Germany would be brought home by 2015 and the remainder by 2020.

There will be a 40 per cent reduction in the number of Challenger 2 tanks and the UK's available heavy artillery will be cut by 35 per cent.

And a reduction by one to five multi-role brigades will reflect the Army job cuts. Each of the brigades will include reconnaissance, armoured, mechanised and light infantry forces.

One brigade will be kept at high readiness available for operations. No infantry regiments will be abolished or scrapped as a result of the review.

The Army will retain 16 Air Assault Brigade, a high-readiness intervention brigade with supporting units, trained and equipped to be one of the first ground forces to intervene in a new conflict.

Headquarters' functions will be rationalised and the amount of communications and logistics support reduced for HQ operations.

The review says holdings of heavy armoured vehicles will be reduced but insists that it will "still be sufficient to conduct operations in high-threat situations".

However, a new range of medium-weight armoured vehicles including the Terrier engineer vehicle and reconnaissance and utility vehicles will be added to the Army's fleet. It will have a multiple-launch rocket system capable of striking targets up to 50 miles away.

Following the Army's experience facing improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan the review says "protected support vehicles to move logistic supplies around the battlefield will replace unprotected versions".

Precise figures and dates were not given for several of the review's conclusions.

Jane's Strategic Advisory Services director Michael Formosa warned: "The reduction of Army personnel offers the strongest impediment to UK operational capability.

"Although the proposed timing of the reduction of the force by some 7,000 men should not negatively impact the Afghanistan mission, given the extent to which the Army is currently stretched to meet current commitments this reduction might call into the question the ability of the Army to undertake 'Another Afghanistan'."