Would mandatory National Service benefit or burden the Royal Navy?

Should they win the general election, the government have announced a plan to introduce a form of compulsory service for 18 year olds. In this article we examine whether this type of scheme would be good news for the RN.

The offer

Details are limited at this stage the concept seems to be a form of non-voluntary service, although failing to participate would not be subject to criminal sanction. A pilot scheme would be launched in 2025 with the multiple complexities of the plan to be worked out by a Royal Commission.

Less than 4% of the approximately 750,000 18-year olds in the UK would be able to take up one of the 30,000 military placements that would be made available, the rest would be doing service with blue light organisations, the NHS, community or environmental projects. This is an important point and the military would be able to vet and select from the best available, weeding out the most unmotivated or actively obstructive candidates that will inevitably be amongst a group under compulsion.

Despite the headlines, this is nothing like full scale conscription or comparable to the 2-years of National Service (NS) that was last mandatory for a generation that is now their 80s. The political arguments seems to be focused offering young people to challenging new experience and exposing them to others outside their immediate environment and culture. All very positive but there is less emphasis on actually strengthening the forces as a matter of urgency, despite Ministers saying we are in a “pre-war period”. While some in the Army have previously advocated the re-introduction of conscription, their motivation was the development of a larger and more lethal fighting force as the forces have struggled to recruit, particularly post-COVID. The politicians must be careful not to see the military as convenient hosts for some kind of outward bound camp where young people can have a ‘gap year’ and polish up their CV.

Cadets

Assuming the NS cohort would be split between the three armed forces roughly in proportion to their current personnel strength, the RN would get about 18% of the total, 5,400 teenagers per year. (RAF 18%, Army 64%) It is no secret that the RN is very short of people and has consistently been under its allotted strength for some time. Unfortunately what the RN needs most is skilled an experience sailors who are committed to staying in for at least 5 years, ideally much longer. Even for junior ratings, the level of technical skill and knowledge that must be learned is relatively high. The increasing complexity of military technology was one of the reasons Nation Service was abandoned way back in 1960. A ‘conscript’ who will only serve for a year is unlikely to be able to contribute much and would actually be a burden on the service for much of the time given the level of support and mentoring needed just to keep the usefully occupied.

NS personnel would best be treated as cadets and mostly kept away from frontline operations. Perhaps the RN could acquire some dedicated cadet training ships (as used by many other navies and the long-since abandoned RN Dartmouth Training Squadron). This would provide an introduction to life at sea, acclimatisation to routines and some more advanced instruction without the need to disrupt the overstretched operational fleet which has neither the bunk space or mentors to handle large numbers of cadets. If this scheme was implemented, the greatest value would be in demonstrating value and opportunities the RN offers in order convince those on NS to make the navy a career and sign on for longer.

Pipeline

Despite the broader narrative that says young people are not interested in serving, the RN does not have an attraction problem and on average gets at least 2,400 applications to join every month. Unlike the Army with its much higher need for people, most months there are actually enough keen volunteers to meet the existing RN’s intake needs. Recently there has been a serious struggle to get applicants through the assessment process and into basic training. Before any kind of expansion could be introduced, across all 3 forces the selection process needs to be properly fixed. Applications should be processed within weeks, progress communicated clearly and successful applicants rapidly allocated training places. Until this relatively basic function is fixed and proven to work reliably even under normal circumstances, talk of handling additional national service applications is something of a fantasy.

Trainees need people to train them. The RN does not have large numbers of instructors and experienced people available to staff much-expanded training courses at HMS Raleigh or BRNC Dartmouth. One solution might be to try to recruit recently retired personnel as additional instructors.

When National Service was last in place, expectations around accommodation standards were much lower. 40 men living in a Nissen hut heated by a single wood burner might have been tolerated in the 1950s but the today people expect better. To cope with a surge in trainees, RN would have to invest in facilities at the training bases and heavily in more single living accommodation, as well as transport and uniforms, equipment and admin support. The challenge for the Army in this regard would be much greater and much of this would need to be in place before the new trainees arrive.

During the pandemic the RN saw a 30% surge in applications and took the opportunity to take on more people. Phase 1 basic training courses for ratings were run at HMS Collingwood and BRNC Dartmouth with HMS Raleigh full to capacity. On completion of the 10 weeks’ basic training, baby sailors then need to pass on to phase 2 to learn the basics of their specialist trades. While it was relatively easy to expand Phase 1, the RN struggled to find places on phase 2 courses and many who had passed phase 1 were left waiting around, becoming disillusioned and unable to be usefully employed. This demonstrated the need for a well developed and carefully planned pipeline equipped to handle the right numbers all the way through the process.

As Thin Pinstripe Line observes, the £2.5Bn earmarked for the NS scheme is far below what would actually be needed and risks placing burden on the forces that could actually be counterproductive. Perhaps a better solution for the RN would be to use some of this funding to rectify the broken recruitment processes and invest in developing the Sea Cadets and University Royal Naval Units (URNU) which help provide a source of recruits well prepared for regular or reserve service.

Summary

Although this scheme maybe dismissed at ‘electioneering’ the headlines will at least be a further reminder to the public that the UK may be forced to fight in a serious conflict in the not too distant future. It is important that people begin to mentally adjust and even if this scheme is not followed through in this form, it provides another signal that defence of the nation is becoming a serious issue.

The gradual introduction of a properly funded, well developed form of National Service could be of great value and should not be automatically dismissed as some mad right-wing throwback. It could be seen as in important part of deterrence and a responsible way to improve resilience and preparedness for a dangerous future. In Europe, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and the Baltic States all have forms of National Service in place. The UK’s most serious adversary, Russia is running its economy on a war footing where all 18 years olds are subject to conscription for frontline military service. Whatever method is used, growing and sustaining armed forces personnel numbers should be a very high political priority for the UK.

Around 5,000 extra trained, experienced and motivated sailors committed to serving for most of their career would be transformational for the RN and would improve morale, operational tempo and underpin the success of the future equipment programme. At least in the short-medium term, a National Service scheme is not likely to produce this result.