Gurkha unit created to ease army staffing woes

Times

28-04-2025

A new Gurkha artillery unit has been created amid a British Army recruitment crisis.
The King's Gurkha Artillery (KGA) will include 400 Gurkha personnel within the Brigade of Gurkhas. A new Gurkha cap badge, the first in 14 years, has been created to represent the unit.
Gurkhas, who are recruited from ­Nepal, will take up artillery roles for the first time. A third of the KGA will be recruits and the rest will transfer from existing units to build the rank structure.
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Alistair Carns, the veterans minister, said: 'The Brigade of Gurkhas has rightly earned a reputation as being amongst the finest soldiers in the world, and the formation of the King's Gurkha Artillery recognises the outstanding contribution that they have made through their years of dedicated service … This latest development will support retention efforts amongst Gurkhas while protecting and defending UK ­interests at home and abroad.'
The recruits will finish initial training in November before going to Larkhill Garrison in Wiltshire, the home of the Royal Artillery, for trade training.
Personnel who join the KGA will be trained on advanced equipment ­including the Archer and Light Gun ­artillery systems. Future training will include the remote-controlled Howitzer 155 artillery system.
About 4,000 Gurkhas are serving across many trades in the British Army. Thousands of candidates compete annually for a limited number of places.
The Ministry of Defence said that the KGA would become a key part of the British military's artillery capabilities. It would offer career development opportunities for Gurkha soldiers in recognition of their service to the UK, a spokesperson said.
A defence source said that KGA troops would not be sent to Ukraine as part of a potential British contingent of peacekeepers.
The new unit will help address a 700-soldier shortfall within the Royal Regiment of Artillery — within which the Nepalese soldiers will operate — and will also help bolster the army, which has suffered from a retention and recruitment crisis.
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The army has about 71,300 people — the fewest since the Napoleonic era. Of these personnel, only 55,005 are considered fully deployable, meaning that they are able to serve without medical restrictions. The target for the army is 73,000 members.
It is not the only force within the military struggling to recruit; the Royal Navy has missed its recruitment targets for sailors and commandos every year for more than a decade. Figures disclosed last October revealed that the navy had met only 60 per cent of its recruitment target in 2023, when 2,450 people signed up against a target of 4,040.
John Healey, the defence secretary, has eased rules around recruitment to try and ease the crisis. One change means the military will accept cancer survivors for the first time.