Army | Meridian - ITV News

6:38 am, Tue 23 Apr 2013 Troops arrive back home in Kent

Gurkhas arrive home in Kent

The last contingent of Royal Gurkha Rifles (1RGR) have arrived home from Afghanistan and into the arms of their loved ones in Kent. Around 80 members of A Company from 1st battalion were met by friends, family and 1RGR colleagues when they arrived back at Sir John Moore Barracks, Folkestone.

4:50 am, Mon 22 Apr 2013 Troops arrive back home in Kent

Gurkha's home to Folkestone

The families of Gurkhas, who are based in Folkestone, are due to welcome them home later. Around eighty have spent the last six months in Afghanistan. They are the last to arrival of the First Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles four hundred and seventy strong contingent.

Inquest for Kent soldier

by David Johns (@davidjohns_itv)

The inquest has begun into the death of Sapper Mark Antony Smith from Kent. He served with Maidstone's 36 Engineers and was killed in Afghanistan. David Johns reports.

2:32 pm, Tue 05 Mar 2013 Army review: good and bad news

Barracks to close: reaction from Kent MP

Army review: Our Political Correspondent Phil Hornby talked to Julian Brazier, Conservative MP for Canterbury, about the closure of Howe Barracks.

9:06 am, Tue 05 Mar 2013 National

UK to withdraw 11,000 troops from Germany by 2016

Prince Philip meets British troops at Fallingbostel in Germany in 2011. Credit: PA

Around 11,000 British troops based in Germany will return home by 2016 under plans which will see nearly £2 billion invested in Army housing and bases, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond will announce today.

Under the speeded-up withdrawal, the remaining 4,500 troops will be back in the UK by 2019, a year earlier than planned.

Around £1bn of the funding being announced today will go towards 1,900 new houses for service families and accommodation for 7,800 single soldiers.

Another £800 million will be spent on infrastructure and refurbishment of bases.

The Government hopes the plans will mean more cash is ploughed back into the British, rather than German, economy as well as creating new construction jobs in the UK.

Savings of around £240 million a year are also expected to be made through reductions in operating costs.

12:42 pm, Tue 05 Mar 2013 National

Hammond to announce future of German army bases

An overhaul of military bases will be announced later today. Credit: Press Association

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond will unveil his plans for a large scale withdrawal of UK troops from Germany later today.

The 15,000-strong British Army of the Rhine has been in Germany since 1945 and was due to return by 2020.

The Daily Express is reporting that the majority of soldiers will be withdrawn by 2016, with the last 4,500 due back in 2019.

Another 17,000 MoD employees will come back over the same period.

Traumatised soldier sentenced today for stealing rifle

A Territorial Army soldier will be sentenced today for stealing a rifle and ammunition from a barracks in Brighton - in a suspected suicide bid.

Corporal Harry Killick, 36, pleaded guilty in January to possessing a prohibited weapon and stealing a firearm and ammunition from his TA barracks.

The former paratrooper stole the items while on duty on October 19 last year, with a plan to end his own life after being traumatised by seeing his comrades blown up.

He had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since returning to Britain from Afghanistan seven months earlier.

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall, sitting at Lewes Crown Court, adjourned sentencing last month to hear what treatment options could be available to him.