Tri-Service

Military Morale Takes A Tumble

One in four people serving in the Armed Forces are looking to leave "as soon as they can".

The statistic comes as part of the MoD's Regular Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey.

The report also raises concerns over morale with those in the Royal Navy complaining the most, while the number of personnel in all three services who say they're dissatisfied with military life has risen from 27% to 32% over the past year.

Fewer also say they are proud to be in the military, down from 81% to 77%.

Data from the Ministry of Defence

It follows a warning from defence chiefs that the services are struggling to retain people - with naval and aerospace engineers among the most highly sought trades being lured away by the private sector.

In the Army, recruitment and retention problems mean that after 20,000 regular jobs are cut some commanders fear the force may not even be able to sustain its downsized target of 82,000.

With Whitehall in George Osborne's austerity sights the Government is refusing to protect defence from further cuts or adhere to NATO's 2% of GDP spending figure.

Vernon Coaker, the shadow Defence Secretary, said: “The situation has gone from bad to worse over the past five years and is unlikely to get any better with the Tories’ current plans.

“The morale of our Armed Forces is of the utmost importance and the Government needs to urgently address the issues that are making so many want to leave the Forces.”

A spokeswoman for the MoD said: "We continually strive to ensure our people feel valued and that their contribution and sacrifice is recognised."

“While these survey results look disappointing, in fact only 5 per cent of respondents have handed their notice in, and total outflow of personnel across the Armed Forces has actually been falling for the last three years."

"We are confident that the Armed Forces continues to offer exciting opportunities to young people today and that a military career remains both rewarding and fulfilling. We remain on course to meet Future Force 2020 targets as we move towards the agile and flexible force needed to keep us safe at home and abroad.”

The Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force all suffer from confidence in their senior leadership - with only 26% of personnel saying that the top brass understand and represent them.