Recruiting for the military has become challenging in 2022.
Military officials reportedly indicated earlier in 2022 that they would be cutting their recruiting target for the Army from 476,000 to roughly 466,000. The US Army reports that despite decreasing this objective, it will fall 15,000 soldiers short of its annual recruiting targets.
The COVID vaccination requirements and the increasingly woke military culture, where Christian soldiers are persecuted and trans soldiers are given special privileges, as well as the hiring of leaders with a history of anti-white statements, have probably made recruiting across the branches more difficult.
Everyone, from recruiters to senior officials to Congress, is closely watching the Army as it heads into 2023 to see whether it can strengthen its recruiting and stop the end strength freefall the military is now experiencing.
The army fell short of its congressionally mandated end strength by roughly 20,000 soldiers in fiscal 2022 due to a shortage of 15,000 recruits.
Service officials have also told Congress that they anticipate losing between 445,000 and 452,000 troops in fiscal 2023 and are concerned that they won’t be able to recover. In response, lawmakers reduced their authority in the compromise version of the defense policy bill to 452,000.
Although service authorities say that the Army will be able to satisfy all of its requirements with fewer troops, it is unclear how the ongoing drop in manning will affect operations. This suggests that a possible rearrangement of brigade combat teams may be helpful.
“End strength is supposed to be tied to requirements. And so the question becomes: if the end strength is reduced, are the requirements reduced?,” according to Katherine Kuzminski of the think group Center for a New American Security.
