One third of sailors want to jump ship Royal Navy facing crisis of morale

THE Royal Navy is facing a massive shortage of sailors as plummeting morale leads to up to 100 quitting every month.

One in three members of the Armed Forces’ senior service says they would leave their jobs if they could.

And half of the 32,000 workforce admit to suffering from low morale.

The figures were revealed in the recent Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey.

Almost half said workloads were too high, while 40 per cent were not satisfied with service accommodation. The Navy is currently 1,100 men and women below strength.

Disillusion at sweeping defence cuts and decreasing numbers of deployments has led to a steep rise in those wanting to quit, while recruitment is also drying up.

All three services have been hit by a crisis in morale – but insiders say the Royal Navy, once the most powerful fleet in the world, has suffered most. Just 30 years ago it had up to 30 submarines, 48 destroyers and frigates, seven amphibious ships and three aircraft carriers. That has been cut by more than half to just 11 submarines, 19 destroyers and frigates, and three amphibious vessels. Its last carrier, HMS Illustrious, went ou out of service two years ago. An Another, the £6billion HMS Q Queen Elizabeth, is due to en enter active service in the next f four years. Navy chiefs have been so s short of engineers they even borrowed them from the US Coast Guard and others. One source said: “The Nav Navy is being gutted to supply sailors to the new aircraft carrier. “Ships have been mothballed and support ships deploy with skeleton crews because of lack of qualified sailors.” The MoD said: “This government has done more than any before to ensure our Armed Forces feel valued.”

of 32,000 strong navy say they are suffering from low morale