Iraq and Afghanistan wearing down the military, MPs warn

Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are leaving the armed forces ill equipped to undertake any new operations, MPs have warned.

Britain's forces need a period of "effective recuperation" after operating at a rate well above official planning assumptions, a report by the Commons defence committee says today. "The MoD was unable to tell us how long it would take before the armed forces return to satisfactory levels of readiness", it says.

It describes how RAF pilots are unable to train because aircraft are tied up on operations, the navy has too many commitments and major exercises are having to be cancelled.

The report quotes Lieutenant General Sir Graeme Lamb, a senior commander, as saying that his fellow senior officers believed the army needed to expand from about 102,000 troops to 112,000 to meet demand.

The MPs say current defence planning assumptions – that the forces are supposed to be resourced to maintain one enduring medium-scale operation and one small-scale operation – are "out of step with what is happening in reality". The army has suffered particularly, working at "full stretch" with training exercises cancelled and the time between tours of duty cut. "Given the high tempo of operations over the last eight years it is not surprising that some senior army officers think there needs to be a bigger army."

The MPs point out that the other armed services are also affected. The navy has seen essential equipment – such as the replacement for the Type 23 frigate – delayed and the report questions whether it can continue with its commitments around the world. The RAF has a shortage of aircraft for routine training because of the number of its fighter jets and helicopters committed on operations overseas.

The report warns that any cuts in an emergency "stringency budget" after the next election could make the strategic defence review (SDR), promised by all the main parties, undeliverable.

"The thinking of easier times – when public spending on health, education and social security was increased by much more than that on defence – must not be allowed to continue into these troubled times," the report says.

Meanwhile the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, has told the committee that the plan to renew the Trident nuclear missile project will be excluded from the SDR due to be set up after the general election.

The shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, said the report "exposes the damage that has been done across the armed forces by Labour's refusal to hold a proper review for over a decade".

"It is clear that radical reform is needed to ensure that our armed forces are best configured to defend British interests and that our procurement programme gets our troops what they need, when they need it," he said.

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the former head of the army, said war in Iraq and Afghanistan had taken its toll on troops and echoed Lamb's call for a boost to land forces.

"There is quite a strong argument to say that our land forces are not large enough, particularly units that may have done two or three tours in Iraq and are now on a second or third tour in Afghanistan," he told GMTV. "Inevitably and sadly we have taken a number of casualties and people are tired. So those units need to be stronger. If they were 10% or 15% stronger they would be more resilient to casualties and if people become ill or injured."