RAF Recruit numbers have been on the increase throughout 2013 -
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafhalton/news...1FDA6E8FD17C94
Over the past couple of years the Recruit intake has been small, but still ticking over. The problem being is that they don't want to introduce a demograaphic bulge that causes a problem later down the line where they have no-one if similar age (say within 3 years of each other). Otherwise, everyone leaves at the same time! Whilst we need fewer to maintain our 30-odd thousand, we will need more Recruits than the past few years to sustain our numbers rather than shrink them.
Make sense?
LJ