Troop shortage worst in a decade

BRITAIN’S beleaguered armed forces are facing the worst recruitment crisis in a decade with a shortage of 8,200 troops.

Retention and recruitment is so bad the Army, Navy and RAF are jointly 5.7% below target – with numbers unlikely to improve in the next five years .

The Ministry of Defence has already spent £664million in the past five years trying to bring in and keep personnel. One senior military source said: “This is a crisis that needs to be gripped now. We need to strengthen troop numbers urgently because now is not the time for us to be short of deployable troops.”

The percentage of troops leaving the armed forces has increased from 3.8% in 2010 to 5.6% in 2017. A government spending watchdog report from the National Audit Office out today will announce there is also a gap of 18% in “critical skill” troops such as those in engineering, medical and intelligence.

The NAO report will also claim morale is at rock bottom with only 42% satisfied with service life.

An MoD spokesman said: “Recruiting and retaining talent is one of our top priorities.” He said there was enough personnel to meet its operational needs.