Royal Navy to 'suspend' its force of reservists as Ministry of Defence seeks to save cash

Drill nights for the part-time force of the Senior Service will be scrapped until April next year for the first time, the Telegraph reported.

The situation will impact sailors based at HMS King Alfred, Portsmouth’s Royal Navy reserve unit based at Whale Island, who have been carrying out training virtually for much of the year due to coronavirus restrictions.

Chiefs at the Ministry of Defence are understood to have green-lit the radical cash-saving plan – which comes just weeks after Boris Johnson announced a £16.5bn rise in the military’s budget over the next four years.

Despite the pledge to boost spending, the armed forces still has a whopping £13bn black hole in its budget to try and fill.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace highlighted the problem during the Tory party’s online conference earlier this year.

He said: ‘It is a matter of public record that we have inherited a black hole in defence of £13bbn which needs to be found in the next four years – that's a National Audit Office figure and that's something we are going to have to see what we can do to deal with.’

The MoD will save a further £2m by not sending Portsmouth-based HMS Prince of Wales to America next year for key training that will now be completed in British waters.

The vessel is currently stuck in Portsmouth following a flood in October, which damaged electrical equipment in the £3.2bn aircraft carrier’s engine room.

A further £8m will be saved for the army and £750,000 for the navy thanks to a civil servant recruitment freeze that will last until the spring.

Admiral Lord Alan West blasted Whitehall for the suspension of naval reservists, branding it ‘short-sighted’.

He told the Telegraph: ‘It’s a bad message for the reservists, it sort of says "you’re not that important”.

‘The reserves are important for us and one wants to make sure we keep them on side.’

Reserves make up almost one fifth of the UK’s military personnel. Out of the 39,420 naval and Royal Marine personnel, 3,950 are volunteer reserves, according to the MoD.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, warned the latest cash-saving move could deter future recruits from joining the reserves.

He said: ‘This is very sad news following the welcome announcement of increased defence spending.

‘Securing savings by diminishing the reservist contribution will not just impact on overall operational capability and national resilience but do little to encourage potential recruits to sign up to the reserves.’

The move comes as the Royal Navy recorded a massive surge in the number of people applying to join the force on a full-time basis over the past year.

Interest has spiked by about a third since the start of the year, with 5,944 people having applied to become officers across the Royal Navy.

And applications to become a rating or join the Royal Marines ranks have risen from 14,757 to 18,872.

The spike in applications has prompted top brass to start training raw recruits at a third naval establishment.

In January, about 500 civilians will begin their basic military training at Fareham’s HMS Collingwood.

Reservists are regularly used across the navy’s fleet, with many serving on offshore patrol ships.

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