March 10, 2023
Bad Idea: Relying on the Same Old Solutions to Meet the Military Recruitment Challenge
The U.S. military is facing the worst recruiting crisis since the creation of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF) nearly fifty years ago in July 1973. In FY 2022, the Army missed its recruiting goals by nearly 20 thousand soldiers—nearly 25 percent of the service’s recruiting goal. While the other services were able to meet their FY 2022 recruiting targets, they did so by drawing on delayed entry recruits—those recruits with signed contracts who were not expected to enter service until FY 2023—indicating that the challenges experienced in FY 2022 may only increase in the coming year. Early indications are that FY 2023 is as bad or worse.
Military service provides the sense of mission, purpose, and stability that members of Gen Z seek that few other options offer.
All the signs were there, but the warnings seemingly went unheeded. In 2018, the Army missed its recruiting goal and in subsequent years increasingly relied on increased retention numbers to meet their total end strength requirements. Other services encountered increasing challenges too in meeting their missions.
Read the full article in Defense360 from CSIS.
More from CNAS
-
School of War Ep 150: Katherine Kuzminski on the Draft
Katherine Kuzminski, Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at CNAS, joins the show to discuss recruiting and mass mobilization in the event of war. Listen t...
By Katherine L. Kuzminski
-
The Melting Fortress: The United States, Canada, and the Race Against Time in the Arctic
For years, Moscow has prioritized the Arctic as a critical pillar of its national security, opening or refurbishing over 50 military bases and scaling up military operations a...
By Andrew Spafford & Samantha Olson
-
U.S. military must reinforce Guam's crumbling infrastructure
In Guam, one is quickly struck by the juxtaposition of crystal-clear waters with crumbling infrastructure and abandoned cars strewn across the small Pacific island. Following ...
By Taren Sylvester & Evan Wright
-
Preparing for the Possibility of a Draft without Panic
Conscription has never had a political constituency in Congress. It remains a serious, costly, and potentially deadly tool meant to protect Americans from the extreme conseque...
By Taren Sylvester & Katherine L. Kuzminski