An incendiary first post CJMAN. You better be right, otherwise I feel a lot of heat coming your way!
FULL LEFT RUDDER, I'd be surprised if they didn't look at a few people during the recruitment season. How many, if any, are recruited is the standard sum of fleet size, resignations, retirements, promotions and long term sickness levels. I'd very much doubt if the FltOps management have more than an educated guess as to their needs at this stage. You'd best hope for no fleet reduction, 30+ off to pastures new and a dozen or so new commands. Although the exact opposite of the above is easily possible.