Britain outlined an ambitious plan to restructure its military in a 2010 review which saw equipment programmes and personnel numbers slashed, as part of an effort to tackle a big budget deficit and chaotic and bloated defence expenditure.

In the review, the government said it would be more “selective” about future military deployments, and that it would be able to take part in one enduring operation like the Afghanistan or Iraq wars, but not two simultaneously.

Former army chief Richard Dannatt told the BBC the army cuts carried risks.

“Predicting the future is very difficult, strategic shocks happen, we often don’t get it right so let’s hope that the next decade is a rather more peaceful decade than the last, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” he said.