News

35749 readers

2699 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.

7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

183

The U.S. Military Has a ‘Hemorrhaging’ Retention Crisis (nationalsecurityjournal.org)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world

56 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Department of War (DOW) is receiving well-earned praise for reversing the military’s recruitment crisis. In FY2025, all the branches of the military met or exceeded their recruitment goals.

(The problem) is America’s retention crisis. Given the immensely complex tasks we demand of experienced enlisted service members and officers, the time and money it takes to replace the expertise required to perform these tasks, and how central this expertise is to modern warfighting, we cannot afford to keep hemorrhaging essential talent.

Despite spending nearly six billion dollars on recruiting and retention in recent years, including giving over 70,000 people retention bonuses, people are leaving the military at some of the highest rates of the last decade. For instance, 7% of Air Force officers and 11% of Airmen now leave the service each year, 350% and 550% above the national average, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, the more specialized and in-demand an officer’s skill-set is, the more likely the military is to lose them to the private sector. Four thousand troops left cyber jobs in 2024, despite DOW facing a 16% cyber position vacancy rate. While DOW does not publicly track how many AI experts it employs and loses each year, Georgetown University reports an intense shortage of uniformed personnel who understand both the mission and the emerging technology.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Theoretical defense, war is an institution and if not maintained you may be caught wrong footed when it comes a knocking. How many empires, kingdoms, or city states have been utterly annihilated because they forgot how to truly conduct warfare.

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How many empires, kingdoms, or city states had satellites watching every movement around the globe?

How many had mass surveillance of digital infrastructure around the globe?

How many had an ocean either side of them and 2 (until recently) friendly countries north and south?

How many had military bases in multiple other countries' territory?

How many had a military expenditure so vast it dwarfs all other global military spending combined?

I understand your point, but when it comes to the American military, they've gone far beyond what could ever be justified as defence readiness.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Maybe but that is also a relatively recent development, as recently as 40 years ago there was a near peer that could be a potential threat. While that turned out to be a generous over estimation one does not under estimate their goes, also the US does have quite a few allies that do or could need assistance against far larger threats, though how long that'll last is anyone's guess.

Fact of the matter is the circumstances for which the argument could be made that the US military should be dissolved is relatively new, while the argument about war policy is as old as the US itself. Though personally I don't think either will matter much longer, the reactionaries and corporations are doing a stand-up job ensuring every empire killing problem is hit simultaneously.