Defence secretary says reforms recommended by Lord Levene will create more 'meritocratic armed forces as well as new career opportunities' Britain's armed forces will be radically overhauled in plans that will see the number of senior officers cut and could also lead to ministerial posts being axed.
The defence secretary, Liam Fox, said the aim was to "strike a new balance" in the department, with better budgetary control and an end to the "micro management" that he claimed had undermined the department's culture.
Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have approved the reforms, recommended by Lord Levene, and the proposals will be published on Monday.
In a speech, Fox will say Levene's blueprint sets out "a vision of transformation on a scale not seen in defence for a generation".
The long-awaited overhaul of one of Whitehall's most complex ministries will lead to each of the three services thinning their ranks at the highest level. As the Guardian revealed last month, the army, navy and air force will each be run by a single chief.
Fox told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his announcement would outline changes from some of the practices he said had "bedevilled" defence in recent decades.
"We need to prepare military structures for future roles and challenges," he said. "I want to create new career structures and opportunities as well as having better streamlined management, because we've allowed costs to escalate and projects to run over in the most appalling way ... we need to bring that under control."
Fox said he believed there was a "very strong case" for reducing the "star count" – the number of top military staff – to create space for those coming up through the ranks.
"What we will set out I hope will set the direction to create more meritocratic armed forces as well as new career opportunities," he added.
The services currently have two commanders, one in charge of strategy and the other in charge of day-to-day operations. The reforms would see operational control pushed down the chain of command.
The three service chiefs will be removed from the defence board, a powerful committee chaired by the defence secretary. The overall head of the military – the chief of the defence staff, currently General Sir David Richards – will represent them.
The post of deputy chief of the defence staff will initially be retained but is expected to become redundant when the current holder of the job, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, moves on.
A committee chaired by an independent non-executive director, chosen by the defence secretary, will be in charge of appointments to the top ranks.
Levene argued that the services were top-heavy – a finding chiming with Fox's belief that the number of elite officers should be trimmed to reflect cuts further down the ranks. The department is seeking to make 17,000 service personnel redundant over the next three years.
He also said the boundaries between the department's ministerial posts were blurred, and that it could be time to scrap one of the junior positions.
Some minor boards set up to oversee individual projects will also be scrapped, and a Whitehall source said: "These reforms should lead to major savings."
Fox said one of the problems the MoD faces is getting control of the budget from the centre. The overhaul will address this as well as allowing for a better alignment of decision-making and accountability, he said.
In his speech, he will say: "Lord Levene is clear in his critique. [The MoD is] a department with overly bureaucratic management structures, dominated by committees that led to indecisiveness and a lack of responsibility."
The MoD is expected to axe up to 8,000 civil servants in the next year. The Treasury has given the department the money to start the cuts, but some in Whitehall fear it will be difficult to implement Levene's plans with so many staff leaving.
The Levene reforms are regarded as an important first step in the complete overhaul of the way the armed forces are managed.
Next month, they will be followed by details of how the MoD intends to meet the £1bn overspend in the budget for last year, as well as an assessment of what is really affordable between 2015 and 2020.
The defence secretary, Liam Fox, said the aim was to "strike a new balance" in the department, with better budgetary control and an end to the "micro management" that he claimed had undermined the department's culture.
Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have approved the reforms, recommended by Lord Levene, and the proposals will be published on Monday.
In a speech, Fox will say Levene's blueprint sets out "a vision of transformation on a scale not seen in defence for a generation".
The long-awaited overhaul of one of Whitehall's most complex ministries will lead to each of the three services thinning their ranks at the highest level. As the Guardian revealed last month, the army, navy and air force will each be run by a single chief.
Fox told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his announcement would outline changes from some of the practices he said had "bedevilled" defence in recent decades.
"We need to prepare military structures for future roles and challenges," he said. "I want to create new career structures and opportunities as well as having better streamlined management, because we've allowed costs to escalate and projects to run over in the most appalling way ... we need to bring that under control."
Fox said he believed there was a "very strong case" for reducing the "star count" – the number of top military staff – to create space for those coming up through the ranks.
"What we will set out I hope will set the direction to create more meritocratic armed forces as well as new career opportunities," he added.
The services currently have two commanders, one in charge of strategy and the other in charge of day-to-day operations. The reforms would see operational control pushed down the chain of command.
The three service chiefs will be removed from the defence board, a powerful committee chaired by the defence secretary. The overall head of the military – the chief of the defence staff, currently General Sir David Richards – will represent them.
The post of deputy chief of the defence staff will initially be retained but is expected to become redundant when the current holder of the job, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, moves on.
A committee chaired by an independent non-executive director, chosen by the defence secretary, will be in charge of appointments to the top ranks.
Levene argued that the services were top-heavy – a finding chiming with Fox's belief that the number of elite officers should be trimmed to reflect cuts further down the ranks. The department is seeking to make 17,000 service personnel redundant over the next three years.
He also said the boundaries between the department's ministerial posts were blurred, and that it could be time to scrap one of the junior positions.
Some minor boards set up to oversee individual projects will also be scrapped, and a Whitehall source said: "These reforms should lead to major savings."
Fox said one of the problems the MoD faces is getting control of the budget from the centre. The overhaul will address this as well as allowing for a better alignment of decision-making and accountability, he said.
In his speech, he will say: "Lord Levene is clear in his critique. [The MoD is] a department with overly bureaucratic management structures, dominated by committees that led to indecisiveness and a lack of responsibility."
The MoD is expected to axe up to 8,000 civil servants in the next year. The Treasury has given the department the money to start the cuts, but some in Whitehall fear it will be difficult to implement Levene's plans with so many staff leaving.
The Levene reforms are regarded as an important first step in the complete overhaul of the way the armed forces are managed.
Next month, they will be followed by details of how the MoD intends to meet the £1bn overspend in the budget for last year, as well as an assessment of what is really affordable between 2015 and 2020.
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