WARNINGS have been sounded that the UK's armed forces are "woefully" short of the skills and manpower needed to face modern threats to national security.
A report by the National Audit Office on the makeup of the army, navy and RAF found "significant" shortages of personnel with skills in critical areas which are not expected to be filled before 2023.
More than 100 'pinch-points', including engineering, intelligence, logistics, pilots, communications and medical services, have been identified by the NAO, who also found that 8,200 posts need to be filled to bring numbers up to their required level - the biggest gap in a decade
The office warned that problems are only likely as the Ministry of Defence will also have to train troops with new specialist technical and digital skills to respond to the emerging threats of modern warfare such as cyber attacks.
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Amyas Morse, Head of the National Audit Office, said: “Ensuring the Armed Forces have the right number of skilled personnel in place is not a new challenge, but given the complexity and development of new, modern-world threats, it is a challenge that will only continue to grow.
"The Department needs to fundamentally change its approach to develop skilled personnel and address the long-established shortfalls that persist.”
With constantly evolving threats facing the UK, the NAO said the "increasing risk of cyber and electronic attacks will change the capabilities and skills that the armed forces will need in future".
"The new demands will add to the pressure to increase capability in some trades that already have shortfalls," the report added.
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The shortfalls result mainly from recruitment and retention problems. In 2016-17 targets for the number of regulars recruited into the Armed Forces were missed by almost a quarter, while the percentage of those leaving has increased from 3.8 per cent annually in March 2010 to 5.6 per cent in December last year.
In some trades and ranks, this percentage is several times higher than average, and the MoD has tried to bring in a substantial programme of changes to support service personnel, such as rewarding people for their skills through a new pay model or flexible working.
However, the NAO found that the situation has yet to improve.
Meg Hillier, the Labour MP and Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts said: “In these uncertain times, it is more critical than ever that Britain has a well-staffed Armed Forces with the technical know-how to handle threats to national security.
“But the NAO report shows that the Armed Forces are woefully below compliment, especially in crucial areas like intelligence and engineering.
“The Ministry of Defence needs to take a long hard look at its current approach. Without more innovative methods to attract and retain staff, the UK risks continuing with big gaps in capability and overstretching already hard working and crucial service personnel.”
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An spokesman for the MoD said: “Recruiting and retaining talent is one of our top priorities and we have a range of schemes, including retention pay for and direct entry into specialist trades and flexible working to make sure we attract and keep the skilled personnel we need.
“The military has enough personnel to meet all its operational requirements, including being active on 25 operations in 30 countries throughout the world. In the past year we have recruited over 13,000 people into the Armed Forces.”
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