DEFENCE chiefs have been forced to rehire thousands of ex-servicemen following years of cuts that have left the armed forces with shortages of key personnel.

More than 12,000 former servicemen who left the armed forces within the past eight years have been re-employed by the Ministry of Defence since 2010, when troops began being made redundant as part of the austerity cuts.

Senior defence sources claimed this weekend that five years of budget cuts had left the armed forces in a “chaotic mess” with taxpayers’ money wasted on rehiring troops who had previously been made redundant.

Two serving generals said too many highly skilled senior non-commissioned officers with years of experience in technical fields had been allowed to leave.

One said: “Even as the MoD was handing out redundancy notices to highly qualified soldiers, we were rehiring others with similar experience.”

The revelations came as it emerged that the RAF had a shortfall of 280 pilots — 15% of the 1,750 pilots at Flight Lieutenant and Squadron Leader rank it requires. A spokesman for the MoD said: “All front-line roles are fully manned.”

Parliamentary written answers reveal that 12,010 servicemen who left the armed forces after April 2007 were re-employed after April 2010.

The Sunday Times understands that 3,600 of these were rehired for the regular forces — even though thousands of other regulars were being made redundant at the time.

The MoD has spent £882m on redundancy payments to military personnel and civil servants since 2010.

Of the 10,800 personnel made redundant between 2011-12 and 2014-15, a total of 1,020 were re-employed. One hundred of them returned to the regular forces, 840 into the reserves and 100 into the civil service.

“In the majority of cases since 2011 where regular personnel have gone on to serve their country further, it is in the reserves,” an MoD spokesman said.

Meanwhile, defence sources claim the RAF faces having to ask the German and Italian air forces for spare parts for Tornado bombers used in attacks against Isis in Iraq.

Senior RAF officers are said to have made “discreet” inquiries with their German and Italian counterparts about the availability of spares under a long-standing reciprocal arrangement. Eight RAF Tornados from the UK’s Akrotiri base in Cyprus are taking part in bombing raids against Isis. The RAF insisted: “Spares are not running low.”