IN: 22 CH-47 Chinooks, 1 C-17 (possibly)
OUT: RAF Cottesmore, 1 or 2 Tornado Squadrons, early retirement Harrifer fleet
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Job cut fears as new Chinooks ordered for Afghanistan
Chinooks form the backbone of the UK's helicopter fleet in Afghanistan
The government is to buy 22 new Chinook helicopters but the defence secretary is to set out other cuts to fund them.
Bob Ainsworth is due to announce the closure of an RAF base - understood to be RAF Cottesmore in Rutland - and the loss of thousands of defence jobs.
The first 10 helicopters are expected to be ready in 2013 and could be used by the RAF in Afghanistan.
Ex-defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind said it was dangerous to cut core budgets to fund the Afghan conflict.
The Harriers based at RAF Cottesmore will move to RAF Wittering before being phased out of service altogether, earlier than planned.
The Tornado force based at RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Marham in Norfolk will also lose one squadron and it is thought parts of RAF Kinloss, in Moray, could be mothballed.
'Short-sighted'
Mr Ainsworth's announcement comes after months of criticism over the number of helicopters in operation in Helmand, in Afghanistan.
If you cut back the premier league capability of the UK forces in order to just win a counter insurgency campaign against the Taliban..., when you finally do pitch up against a state that has those capabilities you could seriously end up losing a conflict that really matters to the UK in future
Andrew Brookes
RAF Kinloss 'could be mothballed'
MoD accused of 'buy now pay later'
In total, the Chinook fleet will increase in size from 48 to 70.
Mr Ainsworth said: "Helicopter capability has already doubled in the last three years and this future strategy builds on this, ensuring that our armed forces have the very best resources at their disposal."
The Chinooks will be manufactured in the US by Boeing, but maintenance and repairs will provide "a lot of work" at Vector Aerospace in Gosport, Hampshire, said Defence Minister Quentin Davies.
He was criticised on Tuesday by Defence Select Committee MPs for not giving the full contract to a British firm.
He told them: "When we can we like to support employment in this country and we like to support the British defence industry.
"But when it comes to the crunch, we have to buy the best equipment that money can buy for our armed services. We are buying Chinook because Chinook is simply an incomparable aircraft."
Commander Joint Helicopter Command, Rear Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt, said Chinooks had proved "invaluable" on operations, saying: "This new strategy will dramatically increase our military capability on the battlefield for many years to come."
ANALYSIS
By Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent
It's going to make a big difference to British operations in Helmand. However much jam you spread on it, they are short of helicopters.
The trouble is they aren't actually going to be ready until 2012/2013. A lot of people who will say better late than never but we really could do with them now and we could have done with them in the last three years, which has seen increasingly intense fighting.
The Chinook is an old airframe but it's being upgraded; it has a digital cockpit. It's really the battle horse of the Afghanistan operation. These things can carry a large number of men and equipment. They are very fast, can do casualty evacuation and they are the most in-demand helicopter for ferrying people, with incredibly brave RAF crews.
There are more cuts to come and they have said to the MoD you have got to find this money yourselves.
This comes down to choosing between the requirements of Afghanistan today and winning that campaign or whether you take a big, long look at what are the big future threats.
The RAF will fly the Chinooks in Afghanistan alongside Merlin helicopters which arrived in the country last month. Their arrival will mean the ageing Sea Kings, used by the RAF and Royal Navy, can be retired early.
An extra C17 transport plane could also be on the cards.
But the money will have to come out of the Ministry of Defence's existing budget, which is already overspent.
This afternoon Mr Ainsworth is likely to announce cuts to the existing Harrier and Tornado fighter jet fleet, and a cutback of Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft.
Andrew Brookes, a former RAF pilot and director of the Air League, which promotes the cause of British aviation, warned the plan was short-sighted.
He told BBC News: "If you cut back the premier league capability of the UK forces in order to just win a counter insurgency campaign against the Taliban, which has no air force and has no tanks and has no warships, when you finally do pitch up against a state that has those capabilities you could seriously end up losing a conflict that really matters to the UK in future in order to win one in Afghanistan today."
Former Conservative defence secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said he was "disturbed" by the idea of equipment cuts to fund the war in Afghanistan.
He said the consensus for many years had been that the costs of fighting wars should be met from the government's contingency fund, not from the core defence budget.
"That is deeply dangerous, never happened in the past and has the most ominous implications for the integrity of our armed forces."
Gerald Howarth: "Gordon Brown has been stung by pressure"
With the recession meaning UK public finances now show a deficit of £178bn, some cost-saving measures have been announced and more huge cuts are expected.
After Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report last week the Institute of Fiscal Studies predicted that defence, higher education, transport and housing were most likely to be hit, in order to protect schools and hospitals.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said that with more cuts to come the MoD had been told to "find the money themselves" for the Chinooks needed.
Mr Davies told the BBC the government was increasing spending on the military in real terms year after year.
"Of course, there are always things that we would like to buy for our defence capability, for our long term-defence capability, more things we would like to buy than we can afford in any one particular year," he said.
"So we have to make some decisions, we have to decide on priorities. That is our job, as a matter of fact, to make sure that we are spending our money with maximum effect."
Asked about the possibility of RAF airbase closures, Davies said: "If we can get by with fewer bases that will be a very good thing to do. We don't have bases for the sake of having bases, you know; they are not an end in themselves. We have bases where it is necessary to contribute to our defence capability."
Explosive devices
Director of the Royal United Services Institute Professor Michael Clarke said the MoD was having to "make some calculations" about what it could afford in the next three or four years."
He said decisions were being made in the absence of a defence review, which had not happened for 12 years and was not due until after the general election.
A report by the National Audit Office accuses the MoD of driving up projects' overall budgets through short-term cost-cutting.
On Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced £150m would be spent on tackling improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.
Some 122 of the 237 British service personnel who have died in Afghanistan have been killed by explosives, most of them IEDs.
The body of the soldier who became the 100th British fatality in Afghanistan this year, Lance Corporal Adam Drane, has been returned to the UK.
Meanwhile, the first of 500 extra British troops to be deployed to Afghanistan have arrived in the country.
The soldiers from The 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) landed at 0505 local time (0035 GMT).
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... The axing also continues in the UK ...
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