Armed Forces fully manned ?????????

[spheroid]

Army set to reach full strength due to recession - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/5298540/Army-set-to-reach-full-strength-due-to-recession.html)


I'm not quite sure where they all are but they are not in my Squadon.

[Yeoman_dai]

No way has the Army recruited 4000 odd soldiers, trained them and sent them to units since January, not a hope in hell.

Maybe they mean applications have risen? Without taking into account wastage?

[Melchett01]

Ignoring the school-boy typos which further dent the credibility of this article, in no way can an increase in people applying to join up be classed as reaching full strength.

Numbers are one thing, experience and effectiveness are very very different. And that will take much more than a recession to sort out.

Of course, non of that will mean anything to the bean-counters, spin doctors and senior officers in recruiting ivory towers.

[Grabbers]

Melchett:

Of course, non of that will mean anything to the bean-counters, spin doctors and senior officers in recruiting ivory towers.

They don't actually care about experience, capability etc. They will massage the capability requirement to suit the budget at the time; this will in turn influence our foreign policy and hopefully, in the future, our political masters will not ask us to punch above our weight. This cloud of shortsightedness may just have a silver lining in the form of disentanglement from US foreign policy.

Luck or judgement? You decide but it may just work in our favour.

[November4]

I'm not quite sure where they all are but they are not in my Squadon.

Unless there is a bit of time travel they won't be there for another 2 years. The article does sort of make it clear that this is not now but in the future.

The Army is expected to reach full strength in two years' time as the recession is prompting increasing numbers to enrol.

It is expected to reach its full strength figure of 101,790 by 2011 after years of it struggling to attract new recruits

[Lord Elpus]

AMP briefing at Brize only a few weeks ago stating that we will continue to be undermanned until 2013. After that magical date, everything will be absolutely rosey in the garden :ugh::ugh:

(huge amount of bullsh!t now = quality roses in 2013!!!):hmm:

[Double Zero]

I know several people in the Navy, from subs' to helicopter engineers; they all report people thoroughly p'd off and leaving in droves.

Which makes me wonder how they're going to man ( or woman ) the CVF's, even one at a time.

I gather the FAA is not exactly overflowing with pilots either, which is hardly surprising.

[alexlee]

With the Army minimum contract term of 4 years the majority of those that signed on the dotted line last year will more than likely leave in 2012 when they reach that 4 year point, and if the recent serge of applicants can be based on the recent recession then if the country pulls itself out of it by 2013, all those that joined up this year will leave then. A lot of the applicants see it as just a job, which no matter how many times you try and tell them it is a lifestyle they still don't beleive you. We had one that when he realised the sign off period is a year he didn't want to apply.

You will never get a fully manned Armed Forces with the above in mind. Plus take into account those that have reached their end of Service and those that get fed up with the tempo of Ops we will always struggle to maintain the correct manning. But those of us in it for the long haul still trundle on through.