Shine comes off the top brass as Government cuts Armed Forces

The military’s “top-heavy” command will be cut by a quarter under the latest in a wave of defence cuts, the Government has said.

One in four senior posts from the ranks of commodore, brigadier, air commodore and above will go, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond announced.

The changes come on top of cuts to front line services.

The top brass cull, which will take two years to carry out, is expected to save the Ministry of Defence around £3.8m a year.

Around 26 civilian and military head office posts are being axed and a new senior structure will come in from April 2013. The new team will no longer be involved in day-to-day management of frontline commands and which will instead take over responsibility for managing their own budgets, according to the MoD.