Armed forces stretched, admits MoD

In its annual report, the MoD said that it had taken a "deliberate risk" with the readiness of the forces to mount new operations in order to sustain the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The comments echo stark warning by the head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, in a leaked memo that reinforcements for dealing with emergencies or other operations were "now almost non-existent".

The MoD annual report said that as a result of the Afghan and Iraq campaigns, since 2002 the forces had been operating "significantly beyond the level they are resourced and structured to sustain" over the medium to long term.

"In order to support and sustain current operations the department has taken deliberate risk against achieving the public service agreement (PSA) readiness target to undertake future contingent operations," the report said.

"This does not mean that the Armed Forces cannot support their current operational commitments, but their ability to take on additional operations that are more than additional operations other than on a minor scale is now limited."

Under the PSA target set by the Treasury in the 2004 spending review, 73% of force elements are supposed to report no serious or critical weaknesses in their ability to meet their peacetime readiness requirements to deploy. The target was actually reached in 2006, rising to a peak of 77%, only to fall back steadily to 67% by 2007.

Units reporting "serious" weaknesses that would make deployment within the timetable set by military planners difficult - although not impossible - rose from 26% to 39%. However, the number of force elements reporting "critical" weaknesses - which would make it almost impossible for them to deploy within the required timescale - remained steady at 2%.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said that while some pressures were easing - with the reduction of troop levels in Northern Ireland and the Balkans - the forces still faced many challenges. "Not for decades have the UK's Armed Forces sustained such an extended period of intense operational tempo," he said.

"We do not underestimate the difficulties we face, but thanks to the outstanding abilities and courage of our people we have made progress."