In October, each of the branches of the United States Armed Forces met their respective recruiting goals for fiscal year 2024 (FY24). For the United States Navy, it exceeded the goals that had been set at 40,600 – an increase from the two previous years, even though it missed the mark in both years. Yet for FY24, the U.S. Navy brought in 40,978 active-duty enlisted recruits.
Now the sea service needs to do it again – in FY25, FY26, and FY27 – to recover from its current gaps at sea. The gaps occur when more sailors are needed for sea duty than there are billets available. The situation is improving, but even by meeting the recruiting goals, it won’t go far enough.
According to a report from USNI News, the U.S. Navy is facing about 20,000 operation gaps at sea, down from a year ago when the number was 22,000 after the service failed to meet its 2023 recruiting goal. The Navy had a 2023 enlistment goal of 37,700 but brought in just 31,834.
The problem is most significant with the apprenticeship or E1 through E4 positions within the Navy.
“Gaps at sea have been a problem for the Navy over the past few years. Last year, the Navy had 21,000 operational gaps at-sea, but 22,000 apprenticeship gaps at-sea. That’s because there were some billets in the higher ranks that were overfilled,” USNI News explained, citing the Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel.
Recruiting Goals Remain Unchanged
The U.S. Navy has left its recruiting goals unchanged – at 40,600 – for FY25, and it will likely remain the same, or increase for the next two years. The reason is that while the service can absorb a bad recruiting year, it takes two to make it up.
The service also can’t rely on the retention of current sailors to make up for the lack of new recruits. Thus, after multiple years of shortfalls, the service will need even more years where the goals are met and hopefully surpassed.
Slow Start But Then a Surge
It was also last spring that the Chief of Naval Personnel warned lawmakers that the service was on track to meet its recruiting goals by as much as 6,700 sailors. Instead, after a slow start, the U.S. Navy exceeded the goals from April to September.
“Our recruiters generated such a high rate of improvement that we were not able to ship them all in FY24,” said Rear Adm. James Waters, commander of Navy Recruiting Command (NRC) in October.
Changing Recruiting Tactics
The U.S. Navy – like all the branches of the military – has gotten creative to fill the ranks. That has included lowering some barriers to entry, and last year announced it would no longer require that recruits have a high school diploma or even a GED (General Educational Development) certificate. In addition, the U.S. Navy remains the only service that will enlist those considered a “category four” recruit – meaning they scored a 30 or less on the qualification test. Such recruits could fill a number of job openings including cooks and boatswain mates, but will still need to meet those job standards.
The U.S. Navy has also turned to social media to attract talent and has been employing Production Assistance Agreements (PAAs) with several high-profile TV shows. The U.S. military has maintained a partnership with Hollywood going back more than a century – and arguably the most famous example was 1986’s Top Gun, a film that inspired many young men and women to consider flying fighter aircraft for the U.S. Navy.
As USNI News further explained, the service needs 175 recruits daily just to meet the current quotas. And since there isn’t another Top Gun film hitting the box office this coming summer, we should expect more social media campaigns and PAAs.
