The RAF is trying to take over the Royal Navy’s historic Fleet Air Arm and assume control of all army helicopters in a plan to cut more than £1 billion from the defence budget.

The navy clashed with the air force at a meeting of senior officials last week. Its admirals are furious about a campaign, waged under the slogan “one nation, one air force” which would see the Fleet Air Arm scrapped in 2013, a few months before its centenary.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, chief of the air staff, is proposing to scrap all 75 Harrier jump jets shared between the navy and the air force.

Helicopters operated by the Army Air Corps, formed in 1957, would also come under RAF control. Its aircraft include Apache gunships which support troops on the front line, although transports such as the Chinook are already flown by the RAF.

The changes would leave the navy with no planes for its carriers until the new Joint Strike Fighter is introduced, which is unlikely before 2017. RAF chiefs want their pilots to fly the new aircraft from the carriers.

Senior naval sources say Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the first sea lord, has threatened to resign over the plans, although the Ministry of Defence said the claim misrepresented his views.

John Hutton, the defence secretary, told forces chiefs to come up with a plan to make up a £2 billion shortfall in their budget at last week’s meeting of the defence board.

A drop in the number of helicopters across the forces from the current 580 to 320 over the next four years makes the RAF plan for a single defence helicopter command look logical. It would also allow the axeing of bases and hundreds of posts.

The Army Air Corps and Fleet Air Arm are vulnerable because, under plans announced earlier this month, their 300 Lynx and Gazelle helicopters will be replaced by just 62 Future Lynx craft.

Army sources said the cut in helicopter numbers meant two Army Air Corps frontline regiments were likely to be disbanded by 2014, leading to the loss of more than a third of the organisation’s 3,000 personnel.

The Royal Naval Air Service was set up in 1914 and pioneered the use of aircraft carriers. In 1945, the successor Fleet Air Arm, had 3,700 planes flying from the navy’s 59 carriers.

Naval hits

1940: Torpedo planes sink much of Italian navy at Taranto

1941: Planes cripple German battleship Bismarck 1982: Sea Harriers shoot down 21 Argentinian aircraft in Falklands war for loss of two planes to ground fire

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