The Future of the Army Reserve - Discuss

[Dropshort]

I do not think there will be an increase in age for recruitment to allow 50 year olds join. However, given the re-enlistment and recommissioning schemes in place for PDF, it should be high on RDFRA's agenda with the new ORA to get similar re-enlistment / recommissioning schemes in place for RDF.

The nature of RDF service should lend itself to people dipping in and out as life / work gets in the way even better than PDF service does.

It should be an easy win for boosting RDF numbers.

Thanks for the reply. Ordinarily I'd be of the view that recruits coming in at 50 were too old, however given the current state of the Defence Forces vis a vis manpower, and the changing defence dynamic in Europe, I'd suggest it makes sense to strengthen the reserves with the best available candidates. If that means taking in older candidates who can pass fitness, medical and whatever other assessments are put in place then I think the Government should be doing that. The British Army had raised the age limit to 50 a few years back to bolster the numbers of recruits for just this reason. However if you open the door to a lot more potential recruits then you need to provide kit, weapons, training and that means investment (in defence), something our Government has no real interest in.