The news came as RAF chiefs were to announce cuts to more than half of their pilots who have been trained at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £1 billion.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that 360 air crew will also be sacked today, in addition to a quarter of 400 trainee pilots being made redundant. They have cost the taxpayer £300 million in training.
Senior Whitehall sources have also disclosed that over the next four years, a total of 472 pilots will be made redundant, reducing the RAF to a “pitiful force”.
There is said to be growing fury in the upper ranks of the RAF, with the Chief of the Air Staff in conflict with senior commanders over the scale of cuts. RAF command was a “crucible of ill-feeling and that starts at very, very senior levels”, a senior military figure said.
Figures passed to this newspaper show the level of cuts that will be forced on the RAF across the board. An estimated 108 pilots will be taken from the fast jet fleet, 176 from helicopters, including some Navy and Army pilots, and 188 from air transport, trainers and surveillance.
MoD official is paid more than David Cameron