After many years of falling military recruitment, the latest figures from the UK have seen a welcome upturn to numbers joining and declining numbers leaving. There is still work to do, says the UK Ministry of Defence, but both trends are heading in the right direction. On a more cautious note, these figures were released as the UK MoD is crying out for equipment and structural renewal that is being retarded by a harsh economic climate and a government that does not prioritise defence.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has recently released its Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics report that covers recruitment in the period up until 1 April 2026. The report highlights the number of service personnel joining the armed forces (the so-called ‘intake’) and those leaving (the ‘outflow’). Interestingly, the report contains historical data going back to April 2012 to allow the reader to compare and contrast changes over that period.
On the surface the report is positive, showing increases in total UK forces personnel from 181,894 in April 2025 to 183,407 in April 2026. There is also good news, albeit marginally, as far as outflow is concerned. This was 13,393 as at 31 March 2026 compared to 13,505 on 31 December 2025. Some additional nuances of the report will be examined later, but what of its context?
The report’s publication comes at a pivotal time for defence in the UK as public coverage by the general media has seldom been more animated. The reasons for this are manifold. Russia’s war in Ukraine and antipathy towards NATO, combined with its grey-zone operations in Europe, are causing concern for many. Conflict in the Gulf has also added uncertainty and this has been magnified by the time that was taken to get HMS Dragon ready for sea and deployed to the Mediterranean. Unscheduled repairs for the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in Stavanger and low submarine serviceability are all indicative of the UK’s military decline and these national failures strike a chord with the general public.
Political inaction is also playing a part. Despite Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stating in his introduction to the 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) that he would “put security and defence front and centre to make it the fundamental organising principle of government” and his then defence secretary John Healey asserting that the government “will reform, invest and act”, no meaningful investment or actions have been taken to re-build the UK’s military capabilities or to ensure its deterrence projection. In the words of Lord Robertson, former NATO secretary general and co-author of the 2025 SDR, the current government is showing “corrosive complacency” when it comes to defence. With the UK yet to publish its Defence Investment Plan (DIP) as of 12 June 2026, which was originally expected to be released in the autumn of 2025, long-term defence planning has become impossible and this has led to inaction and drift.
The UK’s total military force of 183,407 needs to be put in perspective. That number comprises 38,295 members of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, 109,485 British Army personnel and 35,627 serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF). The total figure includes 4,464 Gurkhas, 32,034 Volunteer Reserves, 154 Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP) as well as 2,639 members of the Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS). The latter are former military personnel that provide guard services to military establishments around the UK.
There are also 4,188 members of the Serving Regular Reserve. These are former regular service personnel that have applied to return to military service on a fixed-term reserve commitment.
In addition to the 32,034 Volunteer Reserves, two other types of reserve must be added. The first type are the Sponsored Reserves, numbering 1,962. According to the MoD, these are “members of a civilian workforce who deliver support to UK forces under a contract agreement with the MoD”. That support is provided in both peacetime and during war.
Taking a subtraction of the different types of reserves, Gurkhas, MPGS and LEPs into account, the UK has a regular armed forces strength of 137,966, but the story in terms of preparedness does not end there. Turning to trade training, often referred to as Phase Two training, this follows the basic military training that recruits encounter in Phase One. In the case of the British Army, it refers to soldiers that have completed Phase Two training as Full-Time Trade Trained Strength (FTTTS). As of 1 April 2026 this figure was 70,759, or 65%. For the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, the figure was 28,182, or 73.6%, and for the RAF it was 27,800, or 78%.
Commenting on the recruitment figures over recent years, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in its MoD follow-up Spring 2026 report that was published on 7 June, stated, “After many difficult years with both recruitment and retention, the latest public statistics for the year to October 2025 point to a corner being turned, with the number of people joining the Armed Forces exceeding the number leaving.”
One of the issues that seriously affected recruitment was when the government decided to close high street recruiting offices and award a recruitment contract to outsourcing company Capita in 2012. This contract resulted in a collapse of recruitment, especially to the army, and the UK Parliament blamed both parties for failing to grip the situation. In February 2025 a contract for the Armed Service Recruiting Service was awarded to Serco.
The PAC notes that “Overall, the average time between someone applying to join and them starting basic training reduced from 496 days in 2023 to 290 days in 2024, and the Department said that this needs to come down further.” A new initiative was implemented in August 2025 that by March 2026 saw candidates receiving a provisional decision offer within 10 days and confirmation of a training start date in 30 days. This reversal is welcome, but improvements need to be pursued and refined still further.
Over the past few decades the British public and its younger element, which make up the potential recruiting pool, have had their exposure to the armed forces flavoured by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The endless coverage of bodies arriving at RAF Lyneham and the corteges passing through Royal Wootton Basset that were reflected on UK nightly news outlets alongside interviews with the injured did little to promote a career in the military.
There has also been the removal of opportunities for the military to engage with the general public, which formerly raised its profile. These events included Battle of Britain days where flying displays were held at three to four airfields around the UK, the annual Royal Tournament event in London, Navy Days in Portsmouth and Devonport, as well as local recruitment drives and school visits by the British Army as part of their Keeping the Army in the Public Eye (KAPE) initiatives.
Another factor that specifically affected the RAF was the emphasis placed on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In 2023 a leaked email from the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre (OASC) to recruiters referred to a need to fast-track more women and ethnic minorities, and to stop sending “useless white male pilots”, to allow the RAF to meet its 2030 diversity targets. With the publication of its quarterly diversity statistic reports on military and civil servant personnel, DEI clearly remains a priority for the MoD.
The growing threats now facing the UK present massive challenges, so it is a positive change to see recruitment and retention improving. The release of the DIP and a promise to fund badly needed re-equipment programmes would also be welcome.
