The Army is set to dramatically expand how many new recruits it can send to basic training this spring, riding the momentum of recent gains toward reversing a recruiting slump it has struggled with in recent years.
By April, the service expects to have 10 additional basic training units established across Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma -- some of which are already established. In total, that would allow the Army to train up to 9,600 new recruits per year, according to Lt. Col. Randy Ready, a service spokesperson.
The move comes as the Army hit a major recruiting milestone. In January, Military.com was first to report the service reached the halfway mark toward its ambitious goal of bringing in 61,000 active-duty soldiers this fiscal year, which began in October. With recruiting numbers trending upward, officials are banking on a surge to sustain momentum and close the gap left by past shortfalls.
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But the Army is also dealing with a logistical challenge: a growing backlog of recruits waiting to ship out. Nearly 11,000 recruits were placed in the Army's delayed-entry program last year -- a program both of applicants who have not yet finished high school or cannot ship to basic training. That figure is double the usual in previous years -- partly due to the service running out of space in its existing basic training classes.
A chunk of that training real estate was reallocated to the Future Soldier Preparatory Course, a program launched in 2022 that has been touted as a game-changer in solving the Army's recruiting crisis.
The course helps applicants who initially fail to meet body weight or academic standards get up to par for enlistment -- effectively widening the Army's recruiting pool at a time when the service is striving to find qualified applicants.
In short, the Army was recruiting faster than it had the ability to get new enlistees into training.
"Expanding basic training capacity is a result of successful recruiting efforts and the Future Soldier Preparatory Course," Lt. Gen. David Francis, commander for the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training, said in a statement to Military.com. "This is a great problem to have as we continue to train the most capable and lethal soldiers for our Army."
The Army hit its recruiting goal last year, bringing in 55,300 new active-duty recruits, succeeding in its goal of 55,000 after failing to hit the target since the COVID-19 pandemic and generally struggling for much of the past decade. The 11,000 brought in for the delayed entry pool will count toward this year's recruiting numbers.
A growing number of young Americans fail to meet the Army's baseline enlistment standards largely due to rising obesity rates and declining academic performance. Defense experts have long warned that the country's obesity epidemic poses a national security risk, shrinking the pool of eligible recruits.
Another major hurdle: declining scores on the military's SAT-style entrance exam, which determines what jobs recruits qualify for. Public-school test scores have been slipping for years, a trend exacerbated by the pandemic. The education gap has disproportionately impacted young men, who are now less likely than women to qualify for service.
While the Army has had an ongoing recruiting challenge, recruitment of women has remained relatively flat, with about 10,000 new enlistees every year for the past decade on average.
The Army dug itself out of its recruiting hole largely with the help of the prep courses. A quarter of new recruits who would have otherwise not been permitted to enlist came through the program, as the service has been slow to evolve its marketing practices and hasn't changed its recruiting practices in any meaningful way.
The program was so successful, the Navy created its own -- also seeing promising early results.
That effort has seen high praise from key figures, including President Donald Trump's pick for Army secretary. Dan Driscoll, an Iraq veteran and financier, said he wants to look into possibly expanding the program.
"[It] seems to be working," Driscoll said during his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday. "If confirmed, I want to look and see if that can be scaled further."
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