The government is to cut the army to 72,500 soldiers as part of a shift to drone and cyber warfare.

Announcing the plans in the defence command paper, defence secretary Ben Wallace said the cuts- which amount to a 10,000 reduction in personnel over the next five years - come as the army converts operations to “increased deployability and technological advantage.”

Wallace said that the government would spend £188-billion on defence over the coming four years, marking a 14 per cent increase of £24 billion over the period.

“This increased funding offers defence an exciting opportunity to turn our current forces into credible ones, modernising for the threats of the 2020s and beyond, and contributing to national prosperity in the process,” Wallace said.

Turning to increased demand for defence and cyber technologies, Wallace said the change “marks a shift from mass mobilisation to information age speed, readiness and relevance for confronting the threats of the future.”

Under the plans, the UK Strategic Command will invest £1.5-billion over the next decade to build and sustain a ‘digital backbone’ to share and exploit vast amounts of data, through the cloud and secure networks, Wallace said.

Automated mine hunting systems are set to replace traditional methods, alongside drone technologies as part of the Army’s electronic warfare regiments and uncrewed air surveillance systems, which will be complemented by offensive cyber capabilities.

The nature of the threat posed by hostile states is also changing, Wallace said: “Technological proliferation, use of proxies, and adversaries’ operating below the threshold of open conflict means that the United Kingdom must also play a role in countering such aggressive acts.”

“Keeping ourselves informed of the threat and ahead of our rivals means that Defence Intelligence will be at the heart of our enterprise. We will exploit a wider network of advanced surveillance platforms, all classifications of data, and enhanced analysis using Artificial Intelligence,” he added.

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