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Number of 16-year-old recruits falls
11 September 2012
In the 2011/12 financial year, 1,495 16-year-olds joined the armed forces. The figures include 1,475 signing up for the army and just 10 each joining the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.
Just 600 of the 16-year-olds who joined the army last year are serving in infantry regiments.
In 2002/03, the numbers were considerably higher, with 3,600 16-year-olds joining the army, 585 signing up for the Royal Navy and 245 joining the Royal Air Force.
The figures were released by new Personnel, Welfare and Veterans Minister Mark Francois in answer to a question by Labour MP Alex Cunningham.
Francois also revealed that there are currently just 140 serving army personnel under the age of 18 and 10 Royal Air Force personnel under the same age. There are said to be no personnel under 18 serving in the Royal Navy.
Although personnel under the age of 18 are not supposed to deploy to war zones, four underage troops were deployed to the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to reports.
A Ministry of Defence 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."
HAVE YOUR SAY
11 September 2012
10 recruits for the Senior Service! If we still had the big mast at HMS Ganges, we wouldn't be able to fill one of the yard arms let alone the whole mast or the button boy at the top.
Spin, spin and more spin from the government which doesn't even believe that making naval guns is something we should be investing in (and therefore, er, selling)any more.
As TV's Jim Royle might well have said, "Future Force 2020 my ar*e".
Michael - Hertfordshire
11 September 2012
Michael-Hertfordshire,
If Ganges was still in commission nowadays,it would be overun by the health and safety people and swiftly shut down by the Human Rights brigade,on the grounds of inhuman treatment of its 'inmates'
Can you see any of todays 16yr olds going through the regime that was Ganges. Not a chance.
michael - notts
11 September 2012
How could i join and am 20yrs old from kenya.
Simon Gatheru - Nanyuki,kenya
12 September 2012
Michael - Notts
Yes, I agree with you re Health and Safety (although whoever said that war is healthy or safe?). It is probably for this reason (a spin-based service) that our sailors surrendered so tamely the other year in the Gulf and burst into tears when the Iranians impounded their i-pods.
Even John Noakes - a children's TV presenter for goodness sake - had no qualms about climbing to the top of Ganges' mast without safety aids back in the late 1960s.
Still, we reap what we sow in defence and, some day soon, we'll come a cropper with under-funded, under-equipped, under-armed and over-stretched naval forces. Where then the bean counters? Enjoying their final salary pensions and their honours for long service. Sic transit gloria mundi, we must say.
Michael - Hertfordshire
13 September 2012
Interesting that 16 and 17 year olds are being sent to the battle front even though they're not meant to be.
They aren't allowed to vote for the members of the government who are sending them to war zones and putting their lives at risk.
Interesting approach, especially when many infantrymen are from areas that traditionally vote Labour.
AlMiles - Bristol, UK