Army may have to backtrack on use of reservists, former Defence Secretary warns There will be challenges on manpower, definitely, throughout this decade, challenges in the balance ahead. We'll have to see how the employment market goes and work accordingly. He added that the army would have to persuade employers to co-operate if they were to have any chance of hitting the 2018 targets. "If you're going to use reserves instead of regulars and are depending on them, you need to be able to get them when you want them, which is a change in relationships with employers," he said. That's something that has to be managed. Otherwise there might be a major disincentive for any employer to take on someone who is in the reserves. All these things will have to be ironed out. Conservative MP Dr Fox said that as Defence Secretary he had only ever committed to cutting the number of regular soldiers when reservists were fully trained and equipped to replace them. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said there were no plans to rethink the strategy. "The decision made two years ago to grow the Army Reserve to 30,000 will deliver a fully integrated force of 120,000 made up of regulars and reserves by 2018," he said. This is a challenging target, but one we are committed to achieving. As the chief of the defence staff has said, the Army is pulling out all the stops to ensure we deliver this new force. These changes will ensure that we have an Army that is affordable and sustainable in the long term. We have just started a sustained recruitment campaign alongside an investment of £1.8bn in training and equipment for the reserves.