The Ministry of Defence has been accused of compromising operational capability by cutting dozens of army training exercises.
The Conservative Party has said that if true, the government was putting financial concerns ahead of military readiness.
Shadowdefence secretary Liam Fox said: "It's clear that the government ispotentially compromising military capability to save money.
"Trainingisn't for fun. When we've got the Navy in the Gulf of Aden dealing withpirates and the Army and Marines in Afghanistan, we need to keep theirmilitary skills at the highest level of readiness.
"Thegovernment must reassure the Armed Forces that these cuts will not haveany impact on their readiness for current operations or to respond tothe unexpected."
According to The Times, 56 exercises have been pulled this year.
But the claims were rejected by defence minister Bill Rammell, who accused Fox of "irresponsible scaremongering".
He said: "Planned training courses have always been subject to cancellation or variation since the year dot.
"No service personnel would deploy to Afghanistan, our main priority, without adequate training.
"Givenour current commitments, we must ensure that activity is focused onpreparing our forces for the challenges they will face.
"Anysuggestion that service personnel are not ready to respond to theunexpected is nonsense, as was seen in the fast and effective responseto the flooding in the North of England last month."
