If, in France, the Ministry of the Armed Forces is struggling to respect its employment plan due to an excessive flow of departures, its British counterpart is experiencing an even more delicate situation. And it is undoubtedly partly for this reason that he had to resolve to announce, this week, the premature disarmament of the last two amphibious assault ships of the Royal Navy, even if it meant placing a mortgage on the future of the Royal Marine Corps.
That being said, the case of the British Army is even more worrying. While its format has continued to decline for almost fifteen years now, a study published by the daily The Times in January estimated that it would have fewer than 70,000 soldiers in 2026, while the latest strategic defense review, published in 2021 [et révisée deux ans plus tard] planned to increase its workforce from 82,000 to 73,500.
However, Grant Shapps, then British Defense Minister, disputed the projections of this study. “The strength of the British Army will not fall below 73,000 men,” he assured. But “the question is not only how many men and women you have on the ground. It’s about how deadly your armed forces are,” he added.
However, preparing to leave his post as Chief of Staff of the British Army, General Patrick Sanders said he “needs an army designed to develop quickly from a first echelon and provide resources at a second level, then to train and equip the citizen army that will follow. » And added: “In the next three years, we should be able to talk about a British army of 120,000 men, including the reservists. But it still won’t be enough.”
In any case, the study published by the Times was not far from the truth… At least if we are to believe the figures that John Healey, the current British Minister of Defense, confirmed during a parliamentary hearing and which the UK Defense Journal reported on November 22.
“Recruiting goals are set and missed every year. Last year, troop morale reached historic lows” and “our forces lost 300 more full-time soldiers than they were recruiting, every month,” Mr. Healey said.
The concern is that this trend is not new… and that it is the result of “deeply rooted problems”, underlined the British ministry, such as remuneration, housing conditions, difficulties in reconciling military and family life, etc.
To try to remedy this, Mr. Healey announced the “strongest” revaluation of balances in more than 20 years. There is talk of granting “retention bonuses” of 8,000 pounds sterling to non-commissioned members who have already completed four years of service. The amount of these bonuses could even reach 30,000 pounds sterling in order to retain key skills in the field of aeronautics.
Another measure aims to “streamline the recruitment process”, the minister having indicated that, over the last decade, of the million young people who applied to join the armed forces, 75% had given up before even taking the tests or competitions.
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