Britain’s forces call on women and foreigners to ease troop shortages

BRITAIN IS AT peace and unemployment is down. Good news for most, but not for its armed forces. They are struggling to attract recruits, owing to fierce competition for workers and a lack of exciting overseas action. Mid-career squaddies are leaving, lured by juicier wages and better prospects for promotion in the private sector, particularly for those with skills in areas like cyber-security or engineering. Salaries in the ranks start at just £15,230 ($20,030). As a result, the forces are losing troops faster than they can replace them. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) fell 24% short of its recruitment target last year.

To plug this gap, it is widening the pool from which it recruits. Last month all roles were opened to women, who were previously barred from positions involving close combat. This week the MOD said it would start accepting applications from citizens of all 53 countries of the Commonwealth. That decision waived a requirement imposed in 2013 that such recruits must have lived in Britain for five years before they could join up. It is hoped that the Commonwealth will provide 1,350 new troops a year, equivalent to more than 10% of the number currently recruited.

Recruiting foreign folk who have never lived within the country’s borders is unusual, says Jack Watling of RUSI, a defence think-tank. Other European countries seeking to bolster their ranks are turning to conscription, which has been reintroduced in Sweden and Lithuania amid heightening tensions with Russia. Some countries recruit foreigners directly from overseas, but they are usually put in segregated units like France’s Foreign Legion. In Britain they will join mainstream ones, with squaddies from Scunthorpe fighting alongside farmhands fresh from Fiji.

The idea may yet catch on elsewhere. Facing similar shortages, Germany is weighing up whether to offer citizenship in return for military service to people from elsewhere in the European Union. But it could also arouse post-colonial prickliness. Commonwealth governments may resent their citizens joining a foreign army, especially if they start seeing their best soldiers leave to seek better pay, says Paul Schulte, a former official at the MOD.

Women and foreigners alone are unlikely to fill the recruitment gap. Many specialist roles with shortages are already open to female troops. And once trained, foreign troops are no less likely to defect to the private sector than the current lot.

The branch facing the worst shortfall is the army. In 2012 it handed its recruitment operation to Capita, an outsourcing firm. By subcontracting tasks such as security vetting, the company has created a bureaucratic tangle, with some recruits waiting 18 months to get onto a training course. Many drop out. Capita insists that the worst kinks are being ironed out, but it is on course to meet just 50% of this year’s quota. The firm will be responsible for recruiting most of the new Commonwealth troops, who will be harder to vet than locals.

The promise of action is the best recruiting sergeant, says Mr Schulte. Without war, soldiering involves a lot of sitting around in tents. Unless it is forced to spend blood overseas, the government may have to spend treasure on higher pay at home if it wants to keep the numbers up.