FILLING THE RANKS
 

An interesting report, which highlights the parlous state of Armed Forces recruiting: https://www.markfrancois.com/sites/w...2026.07.17.pdf

:uhoh:

Doesn't surprise me - all you read on specialist military aviation themed forum boards these days is posts on how life in the RAF isn't a patch on the good old days.;)

Some great soundbites....

And the liberal snowflakes are going to love this one (quote not related to the one above!):

We could just pay them more....................

How do you penetrate female officers at senior rank :E


What happened to plain english?

As per para 7, 'retention issues are formally beyond the scope of this report', or words to that effect.

And there in a nut shell lies a goodly part of the problem. Recruit all you like, but if you can't get people to stay, or aren't flexible enough to keep people who are past certain ages or who are professional but not competitive for promotion, then you've only answered half the question.

Never managed higher than flt lt, until I married a successful one ;)

I have always thought that, no matter how bad recruitment got, it is always better in the bean-counters' eyes to let experienced flt lts go at the 16/38 point and replace them with APOs who may cost a fraction of the salary/pension but occupy the same space with a bit of TRG. That must be why assimilation is so rare.

How are you Melchy?!;)

The problem is the bean counters do not differentiate between bums on seats and suitably qualified and experienced personnel (SQEP).
They could recruit tons of spotty kids fresh out of school, but they won't know what they're doing for years. You can't beat experience for fault finding complex systems. On one aircraft type they reckon SQEP takes an additional two years on a Sqn after all training courses.
What would happen when they can't retain the SQEP? Cancel flying to have maintenance days ?
The problems could include constant ops in a main operating base and our lads and lasses still get **** accommodation and sub standard food not fit for purpose.

There were 155,000 in the Royal Air Force alone when I joined. Our commitments "East of Suez" were drawn down in 1971 and that was an excuse to downsize the armed forces - but hang on a minute: aren't Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan East of Suez? Never mind, we don't need all those soldiers in Germany now that we're Best Friends with Russia, eh? and the world is such a peaceful place now, with all potential enmities sorted and no chance of a war breaking out anywhere, why do we need any armed forces at all?

It's those pesky Beancounters again. I would have thought that with the RAF being run by senior Aircrew and Engineers who can do big sums, they would have been able to identify who these people are and put an end to their infernal meddling.

I don't suppose the situation will get any better when the bean counters have decided to lift the 1% cap on public sector pay for those "essential and valuable" people. who will be the ones at the back of the queue? Because they are not unionised and "there are no votes in defence" I offer three guesses but only one will be needed. Some of us are old and crusty enough to remember the fireman's strike when they pulled the Green Godesses out and the media discovered that the fireman were striking for a rise that was greater than a Private soldiers total salary. Oh boy did the proverbial hit the low tech air conditioning device!! Unfortunately it takes such a crisis and for the politicians and bureaucrats to see votes disappearing down the pan to concentrate their minds and something gets done. Until then the Forces will continue to bleed manpower faster than it can recruit/retain them and will become a uniformed training organisation where people sign on to get their qualifications and then go. Rant Over and Out.

Perhaps we should recruit more Chinese personnel. They don't seem to have a problem.

And lots of Squadies found out, quit the army as soon as they could to do the easier job for more money.

I wonder how many PVR'd to become firemen?

Shouldn't that be "senior Aircrew, and Engineers who can do big sums,"?
:confused:

I feel that the lack of pay isn't the whole thing of leaving - or joining, for that matter!

The great and good of HMG and MOD have, through the systematic withdrawal of perks, privileges, pay and prospects, inevitably turned the former armed forces "Career" into a "job" that people quickly become bored with.

Add to that, the extremely slow promotion path of the RAF ground trades and lack of recognition for jobs with responsibilities and you have the almost perfect formula for driving people out as soon as they possibly can.

What's worse is that the armed forces are now perceived as a low paid job that can regularly put you in danger of being shot, in an unfriendly place too...nothing like the computer games at all!

Finally, I believe all this comes from people at HMG, living in the Chelsea/Notting Hill bubble and having never served in the forces or never had a proper 'career' before moving into politics - i.e. today's professional politicians and the pseudo politicians in MOD.

... agree, and to add: young people are not as stupid as we'd like to think. Whilst serving one's country is still admirable, potential recruits who can read have a plethora of media links which are analysing every overseas dabble we get into. All the gory details are there in glorious technicolour. They are thinking, "Well Iraq was a cock-up, look at the outcome- Afghanistan, same. I would willingly protect my country, but I'm not dying for a politician's ego."

I've had such discussions with potential recruits.

CG

Yes, crap IT - DII is a disgrace and Modnet won't be any better, the introduction of JPA to really discourage people from claiming their entitlements and PAYD (the biggest failure of all leading to poor quality, poor choice and poor service) are 3 of the main degradations to service life that help people make their decision to leave.

Add in the pension restructuring and changing flying pay to retention pay that takes forever to qualify for and you have some pretty good reasons for life in uniform being far less attractive than it was.

And don't get me started on boarding school allowance or the appalling maintenance of MQs and public buildings......

All well and good to highlight the conditions today - but how was Service life (all ranks) in for example, the mid-1930s (budget constraint-wise, reluctance to spend on new programmes etc etc) as a comparison?

Lyneham Lad - All well and good to highlight the conditions today - but how was Service life (all ranks) in for example, the mid-1930s (budget constraint-wise, reluctance to spend on new programmes etc etc) as a comparison?

All well and good to suggest comparison but what about comparing where it all led to? A major conflict with totally unprepared Armed Forces thet took nearly three years to bring up to speed - we won't have the time if it happens again