Navy takes on just ten 16-year-olds in one year
ONLY ten 16-year-olds signed up for the Royal Navy last year, Ministry of Defence figures reveal.
The RAF also saw only ten 16-yearolds enlist.
The number of teenagers joining the two services has plummeted amid fears the Armed Forces are failing to appeal to youngsters.
The Army, however, seemed to escape the recruitment problems, with 1,475 16-year-olds joining in 2011-12.
In total, only 1,495 16-year-olds signed up across the three services in 2011-12, compared with 4,430 in 2002-03.
The fall was most dramatic for the Royal Navy, which saw 585 new recruits join in 2003-04.
Some 265 teenagers joined the RAF in the same year.
Sixteen is the youngest age at which recruits can join the Armed Forces.
But the MoD figures reveal that, despite the recession and high unemployment, two-thirds fewer are signing up for the military than a decade ago.
The figures were revealed by defence minister Mark Francois following a parliamentary question from Labour MP Alex Cunningham.
MoD sources said the forces had hit their manning targets and recruitment was buoyant.
Talking about recruitment across the three services, an Army source
‘Staying in school longer’
said: ‘ There is no problem whatsoever with enlisting people.
‘We’ve got more people than we need asking to sign up. It may be that people are staying in school longer and not coming to the military until they’ve exhausted those opportunities.’
But the dip in recruitment appears to be a further sign of disillusionment with the Armed Forces.
Under a controversial Coalition shake-up, given the MoD name Future Force 2020, the Army will be left at its weakest since 1750 while the Navy and RAF have been forced to take cuts of 5,000 personnel each plus the loss of warships and planes.
Redundancies totalling 22,000, botched defence reviews, pay freezes and the axing of perks for service personnel have left the military at its lowest ebb in morale since 2008, according to a survey by the MoD. In July, despite admitting that morale was ‘fragile’ in the Armed Forces, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond ploughed ahead with axing some of the most distinguished battalions – including those serving in Helmand.
An MoD spokesman said: ‘ As our Armed Forces reconfigure for Future Force 2020, a reduction in recruitment is just one of the ways that will help us reach our intended manning target.’
The job cuts being forced on the Armed Forces by 2015 mean there are fewer positions for school leavers than there would have been in the past, reinforced by the withdrawal of British combat troops from Afghanistan.
Military chiefs do not send anyone younger than 18 on frontline operations, though there have been several cases of such youngsters accidentally being sent to war zones despite the age ban.
The Armed Forces ‘ inadvertently’ sent four teenagers – all aged under 18 – to fight on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years.
Sources in Whitehall said two of the them who were sent to the frontline were within two days of their 18th birthday, while the other two were identified as being underage on landing in the conflict zone and they were all returned to Britain ‘as soon as possible’.