US & UK Navies Suffer Sailor Shortage, Cutting Crews on Carriers & Laying Up Frigates

Posted on by January 7, 2024

This year, the US and Royal navies have fallen short of meeting their recruiting goals, leaving both navies with more ships’ billets than they have personnel to fill them.

In 2023, the US Navy missed its goal of recruiting 37,700 active-duty enlisted sailors by over 7,000, almost 20% short of its target. It also recruited 2,080 officers, almost 18% short of its 2,532 officer goal. It also missed its reserve goals by a wide margin, hitting 3,000 enlisted reservists, or almost 45% short of the 5,390 it wanted. Reserve officers also fell short by 40% hitting 1,167 of the 1,940 goal.

The impact of the recruiting shortfall has been immediate. Forbes reports that in the face of a massive shortage of Navy sailors, America’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), has downsized, cutting the crew aboard by hundreds of sailors.

The cuts appear to be deep and dramatic. Over the past six months to a year, some 500 to 600 sailors have left the USS Ford and have not been replaced. In fact, the USS Ford has shed so many crew members that the ship’s company (core crew members that operate the vessel) is now below the Ford-class Carrier Program’s original Acquisition Program Baseline objective of 2,391 billets—a goal set back in 2004 that many observers considered unrealistic.

The situation is no better on the other side of the pond where the Royal Navy’s recruiting dropped by 22.1% in the 12 months to March 2023. The Drive reports that the UK Royal Navy is so short on sailors that it is reportedly having to decommission two Type 23 class frigates in order to staff its new class of frigates. If this comes to pass, it would reduce the service’s current fleet of 11 Type 23s to nine. That the frigates may be decommissioned comes at a time when the Royal Navy’s major surface combatants are in high demand, including in the Red Sea.

Details on the Royal Navy’s possible decision to decommission the Type 23, or Duke class, frigates HMS Argyll and Westminster, commissioned in 1991 and 1994 respectively, were originally reported by The Telegraph newspaper, citing unnamed defense and government sources. 

There are also reports that the Landing Platform Dock ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark will be laid up due to crew shortages.

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