Inadequate military capability

A former deputy supreme commander of Nato warned in 1991 that planned 20% cuts in the British army's strength to 116,000, from 55 to 36 infantry battalions, would reduce the infantry to "non-viability", and would leave the army six battalions short of fulfilling commitments in Germany, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. The UK would then have the smallest army in its history, both numerically and as a proportion of the population.