US Army Misses Recruitment Target For First Time Since 2005

The service was more than 6,000 personnel short of its target (Picture: US Department of Defense).

The US Army has missed its recruitment target for the first time in more than a decade.

Its goal was to attract 76,500 new recruits but fell short by 6,500.

The US Army Chief of Staff General Mark A Milley said the shortfall was "certainly a warning light out there".

He told reporters at the Association of United States Army’s annual convention in Washington: "We recognise and acknowledge we did not meet the goal for '18.

"We are making some adjustments going forward in our recruiting strategy, our marketing strategy. We're also increasing recruiters.''

He said the US Army will be sending hundreds of recruiters into more than 20 cities in the coming weeks to try to get more people to enlist.

It is thought an increase in US private sector jobs could be partly to blame for the shortage. Gen Milley said:

“There’s a lot of opportunity out there and we’re in a highly competitive environment out there to recruit good talent."

It's the first time since 2005 that the enlistment goal has failed to be met.

Gen Milley said they could have made the numbers if they had dropped standards but were not prepared to do so. He said: "We have committed ourselves…to not sacrifice quality for quantity.

"We very easily could have met the numbers if we were just after the number. But we want to make sure we have the highest quality recruits to man our Army."

The Pentagon is working to increase the size of the Army to half a million soldiers by 2024.

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