U.S. Navy Achieves its FY2025 Recruiting Goal Three Months Early

 

The U.S. Navy has beaten its struggle to hit enlistment quotas and has achieved its recruiting goals for FY2025, three months ahead of schedule. More than 40,000 people have signed up so far this fiscal year, with more to come.  

"This milestone reflects more than numbers - it affects the drive of our recruiters, the innovation of our team, and the courage of thousands of Americans who stepped forward to serve," said Secretary of the Navy John Phelan in a video address. "The challenges ahead are only growing. We're in a new era of warfare, where the battlefield extends from seabed to space. To succeed we must innovate, adapt and move boldly."

It is the second year in a row that the service has met its recruiting target, thanks to several factors. First, the Navy loosened its recruitment qualifications as far as the law allows - raising the maximum recruit age to 41, removing educational requirements, and lowering its minimum allowable Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) score to the 10th percentile, lower than 90 percent of all test-takers' results. Then it added preparatory courses to help any candidates who had the potential to qualify, but had difficulty with physical-fitness requirements or testing standards. Internally, the service also worked on expediting the process for granting medical waivers, a critical change because the Pentagon recently incorporated candidates' electronic medical records into the screening process - and is now discovering disqualifying medical conditions that used to be overlooked.

In addition to these reforms, Secretary Phelan also attributed the recruiting boom in part to President Donald Trump's election - a "Trump bump," which the president has claimed credit for creating. Other service branches are also seeing good numbers: the Army met its ambitious FY2025 goal four months ahead of schedule, and the Air Force has reported exceptionally strong monthly recruitment. 

Now that the Navy's annual goal has been met, recruiters have more time to focus on "fit," not just "fill," lining up applicants with the right talents to meet specific needs out in the fleet. “We’re still working hard every day,” said Rear Adm. Jim Waters, commander of Navy Recruiting Command. “Meeting the recruiting target is not the finish line — it’s a signal that we’re on the right course and ready to keep building the force of the future.”