Giving evidence to MPs yesterday, chief of the defence staff General Sir Michael Walker warned that British forces will not recover to the level at which it could fight another war on the scale of Iraq for five years.

"We're unlikely to be able to get to large scale [capabilities] much before the end of the decade, sometime around '08 or '09," he told the Commons defence select committee.

His comments came as it was announced that 550 jobs are to be axed at the Defence Aviation Repair Agency in the Vale of Glamorgan.