from the artcle:-
I should say that I've gone back only as far as the 2010 SDSR. That seemed a sensible junction to me, because that was the moment the UK's Armed Forces were dramatically cut in size to fill a £38 billion budget black hole. I wanted to examine the effect those cuts in manpower have had on the most senior ranks.According to October's Personnel report, the current size of the Army is 84,490 (down from 106,000 in 2011), Royal Navy 32,500 (down from 37,660) and Royal Air Force 33,270 (down from 42,460).
For what it's worth the total size of Britain's military in 2011 was 180,000 and is now 150,250.
This is where it starts to get interesting.
In 2011, just after that brutal SDSR and before the cuts really started to dig in, there were 32 Admirals, 58 Generals and 37 Air Marshals.
In the five years since, the Army has shrunk by 20.2%, the RAF by 21.6% and the Navy is 13.7% smaller.
It would therefore be reasonable to expect the number of senior officers to have followed a similar pattern, wouldn't it?
Today, there are 36 Admirals (+4), 57 Generals (-1) and 37 Air Marshals (no change). So on paper, as the three forces have dwindled considerably in manpower size, the number of top officers haven't.
So where has the shrinkage occurred? I carried out the same exercise, but amongst the lower ranks.
In the same five years, the total number of junior ranks has shrunk in all three services - in the Navy by 15%, the Army by 22% and the RAF by 21%.
That is broadly in line with the overall reduction - the kind of pattern you'd expect to see, but a completely different story to that at the top of the food chain.
In fairness the figures are a little harsh on the Admirals, Generals and Air Marshals. What they can't show is the soft power and leadership those men (and with just three exceptions, they are only men) deliver around the world.
That is harder to quantify, making the raw data rather clumsy and only part of the picture. But perception is everything.
I have met many of the top brass and some of them are truly impressive, but for the number of Admirals to have increased whilst the overall size of the Navy has decreased, well that's really not cool.