Fears have been raised that the names of several historic Scots army battalions could be lost in Ministry of Defence cuts.
The SNP responded to reports that several of the most famous Scottish battalions, including the Black Watch, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Royal Highland Fusiliers, could lose their names in the restructuring of the defence forces in the UK.
On Tuesday, The Daily Telegraph reported that defence secretary Philip Hammond had admitted the Scottish battalions would lose their names in the cuts package.
He claimed this was already the case effectively as the battalions had been amalgamated to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2005 under the Labour government.
SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson MP said: "The disbandment of these senior units would be an intolerable betrayal by the UK Government.
"It brings into sharp focus the shocking decline of Scottish recruited units and starkly exposes the extent to which the UK Government are running-down Scotland’s defence capabilities. With the recent disbandment of the 40th Royal Artillery Regiment only 8 of 140 regular units will be Scottish recruited and only three of those, or a shocking 2%, are actually based in Scotland.
"In contrast to the need for a well funded conventional defence presence in Scotland, the reality is completely the opposite. For over a decade Scotland has been short changed, losing more than 10,500 defence jobs and enduring a £5.6bn underspend.
"Nobody outside of Whitehall wanted to see the amalgamation of Scottish regiments – it was a small comfort that the unique identities of the battalions would be preserved and now even that seems to be at risk. We should make better defence decisions in Scotland and not leave it to London."
Roseanna Cunningham MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, hit out at plans to do away with the Black Watch name.
She said: "This is precisely what we warned would happen when the UK Government, under Labour, merged the historic Scottish infantry regiments.
"We were assured that despite the merger, regimental distinctiveness and traditions would be retained - the 'golden thread' as it was called. Well that thread has been well and truly snapped and frankly was a fraud from the very start."
The MoD claimed that no decisions had been taken regarding the names of the historic battalions.
A spokeswoman said: "A review of the future structure of the Army is ongoing and no conclusions have yet been reached. As General Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff has stated previously, the Army is confident it can meet its target of 82,000 by 2020. This is in line with the agreement between the Defence Secretary and the Chief of the General Staff for a gradual move towards the new Army structure so operations are not adversely affected by necessary changes."
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