Defence cuts are risky, says former Army chief Lord Dannatt called for more support to be given to employers, who may be reluctant to allow workers to leave on deployment, and sufficient resources put into sending TA forces abroad and on full training missions. He went on: "If these things can be done, then that 30,000 force is possible, but ... it does carry some risks." The cross-bench peer, who was a defence advisor to David Cameron before the 2010 election, said it was sad that Mr Hammond appeared to have decided to retain expensive maritime projects at the expense of Army personnel. He warned that there would be approximately 10,000 compulsory redundancies, and that those leaving the Army against their will at a time of economic uncertainty would need additional support to adjust to civilian life. Following the defence cuts, the United Kingdom is expected to be left with the capacity to fight one major operation at a time, and would not be able to cope with simultaneous conflicts. Lord Dannatt said: "Let us hope that the next decade is a rather more peaceful decade that the last decade, but I wouldn't bet on it. There is no getting way from the fact that the Army will be 20 per cent smaller by 2020. The Army will be agile, it will be capable of being involved in one operation at a time, it won't be capable of getting involved in two operations at the same time like Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course it's tough, but the Government has to make decisions. It has left the Army 20 per cent smaller, of course for the Army it will be very disappointing. Lord Dannatt said that ministers would need to be flexible and be prepared to boost defence spending should it be faced with more than one conflict at a time.