The UK army is cutting training for troops to boost salaries, the Daily Mail reported, citing an unnamed senior military official.
The Daily Mail noted that the UK government had previously ordered the military leadership to save £400 million and use the money to increase the salaries of servicemen. UK Defence Secretary John Healey, meanwhile, said the money should be allocated from the existing military budget.
“Training vital to military units is being cut in order to fund pay rises for servicemen… Training that gives soldiers the opportunity to practice combat skills is being cancelled or scaled back,” the paper said.
According to the newspaper’s sources, the country’s top military leadership has been instructed to use less ammunition during training. One of the unnamed senior military officials noted that soldiers will literally have to say “piff-paff” while miming shooting.
“Money is very, very tight. Servicemen also like to be active – if they do little, their morale suffers,” the Daily Mail quoted a senior military official as saying.
The interlocutors of the newspaper also indicated that the reduction may be subject to the exercises of British soldiers abroad.
Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry said that the de-conservation of facilities, technical re-equipment and modernisation of production lines allowed to increase the production of three-tonne FAB-3000 high-explosive aerial bombs.
