Navy meets 2025 recruitment goal months ahead of schedule

UPI

19-06-2025

Midshipmen sing during the Naval Academy graduation ceremony in Annapolis, Md., in May 2024. The Navy says it has already met its recruiting goal for 2025. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
June 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy is saying it has already met its recruiting goal for 2025 and did so earlier than expected.
Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan said that he is "proud to announce that we have met our Fiscal Year 2025 recruiting goal three months ahead of schedule," in a post to X Wednesday evening.
"A total of 40,600 future Sailors have stepped up to serve," he added, who will be sent to its Recruit Training Command by September.
In an accompanying video, Phelan credited the efforts of naval recruiters, team innovation and "the courage of thousands of who stepped forward to serve" in regard to its having reached its enlistment target so quickly.
The Navy further stated in a press release that it had also surpassed its 40,600 recruitments aim in 2024 by 378 people, and those 40,978 recruits were the most contracted since 2002.
The Navy Recruiting Command's Rear Admiral Jim Waters said of the naval recruitment process in the release that "It shows that when we remove barriers, accelerate processes, and meet people where they are, the right individuals answer the call."
He also noted that "Meeting the recruiting target is not the finish line," but instead a signal that "we're on the right course and ready to keep building the force of the future."
The Navy has made moves in the recent past to help attract potential sailors, such as having raised its maximum enlistment age to 41 in 2022, and as of 2024 allows those without a high school diploma to join as long as they achieve a score a 50 or higher on the Armed Forces Qualification Test.