... but Navy’s all at sea over appeal to ancient mariners to crew new carriers
BRITAIN’S two new £6.2 billion aircraft carriers have been heralded as the beginning of an exciting era in naval warfare – but due to a manpower crisis, they will be crewed by some of the saltiest sea dogs of modern times.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that this week the Ministry of Defence will begin a recruitment drive begging ex-sailors who have retired or been made redundant to come back to man the ships.
Normally, only sailors aged up to 59 are considered for duty. But a shortage of personnel has led naval chiefs to appeal to mariners aged 60 and above to apply for key posts.
Admirals have also been forced to waive rules which say that applicants for top jobs must have served in the Royal Navy in the past five years – intended to ensure their skills are up to date.
Such is the severity of the manpower shortage that applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, irrespective of how long ago they last went to sea.
Sailors paid off by the MoD as part of various redundancy programmes are also being invited to apply for jobs on the new aircraft carriers and across the Royal Navy fleet. The old sea dogs are being enticed with five-year contracts under the Royal Navy’s Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) scheme.
In 2015, the Royal Navy asked the MoD to provide 4,000 additional personnel but only a few hundred sailors were brought in.
As of January 1 this year, the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines had 29,190 personnel – down from 29,530 in 2016 and ten per cent less than their operational requirement.
At 920ft long and displacing 65,000 tons, the new carriers are the largest British warships ever built. Each will carry 40 aircraft and will be crewed by 700 sailors and officers. Each carrier is the height of a 12-storey block of flats.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to start sea trials this summer, with sister ship HMS Prince of Wales following a year later. The final piece of construction on the Queen Elizabeth will be the fitting of her 25ft-wide propellers by divers at the Rosyth dockyard in Scotland.
A Navy spokesman said: ‘We are gauging interest in Reserve service across the fleet. Specific requirements have yet to be determined but all are welcome to apply.’