The U.S. military has a problem. Nearly every branch is falling short of its recruitment goals. Some are starting to admit it’s more than a problem. It’s a full-blown crisis.
Last year, the U.S. Army fell 15,000 short of its onboarding target of 60,000. By May, the secretary of the Army was already telling Congress they were going to fall short again in 2023. Only the Space Force, which draws from a smaller and more selective applicant pool, is keeping pace with its hoped for recruitment numbers.
This has obvious national security implications. The fear is that standards will eventually be lowered intolerably to boost these numbers, or the American armed forces will simply be forced to go without.
