Originally Posted by
Just This Once...
The RN used to have a more expansive up/out policy than the Army and RAF. The forced retirement option is already in QRs and was regularly exercised at 2-star level and more recently at 1-star level. Unsurprising I know of a couple of guys elect to stay at OF5 and keep a job / pension / CEA rather than take a risky push to star rank. I guess they will just bring the QR forced retirement in at a lower rank and only apply it on those who accept the ToS that goes with a promotion offer.
Of course, the law of unintended consequences will kick-in with a higher rate of promotions to keep the pipe fresh with new blood to replace those dumped-out of the system before their full pension point. Recruitment, training pipeline, retention and appropriate experience levels must just be peachy in the RN to suggest this kind of policy.
or there's fairly strong anecdata that Cdrs are leaving because they've become stalled at OF4. Back in the day, Capts at 6 years seniority were also invited to retire if they weren't selected for 2*...