The changes will see the Royal Air Force (RAF) shed about 7,500 posts and the Royal Navy 1,500 by 2008, while the army will lose some 10,000 personnel, Hoon told parliament.

A further 10,000 jobs will also go from civilian personnel attached to the armed forces.

A series of aging warships would also be taken out of service along with the elderly Jaguar fighter jet, while four infantry battalions will be abolished, Hoon said.

Such sweeping changes -- billed as the most radical reforms to Britain's armed services in a generation -- were needed because the country faced very specific military needs in the post-Cold War era, Hoon said.

"The threats to Britain's interests in the 21st Century are far more complex than was foreseen following the disintegration of the Soviet Empire," he told parliament.

Britain needed to "modernise the structure of our armed forces, to embrace new technology, and to focus on the means by which our armed forces can work together with other government agencies to meet the threat of international terrorism and the forces of instability in the modern world", he said.

Hoon did not give a total figure for personnel cuts, but said the RAF, which currently has 48,500 personnel, would be slimmed down to 41,000, while the 37,500-strong navy would be reduced to 36,000.

The army, which Ministry of Defence figures currently puts at 112,000, would have its overall size cut to around 102,000, Hoon said.

The cuts are likely to set off a political storm, notably through the disappearance of centuries-old infantry battalions.

Nicholas Soames, defence spokesman for the main opposition Conservative Party, said service personnel would feel "betrayed politically and morally".

However Hoon said that government was keen to make sure any increases in defence spending were aimed "at what the armed forces require in the 21st century, rather than what they have inherited from the 20th"

WAR.WIRE