Navy ‘Well Postured’ for Upcoming Fiscal Year, Says Recruiting Command Chief

Sailors congratulate each other in front of Midway Ceremonial drill hall during the pass-in-review ceremony onboard Recruit Training Command (RTC), Apr. 23, 2026. US Navy photo Where can the sea take you?

That’s what the Navy’s 2026 commercial, the latest in the Forged By The Sea campaign, asked young Americans. It was a challenge, the head of Navy Recruiting Command told USNI News.

“The marketing theme is challenging them to say, ‘Are you good enough to join this elite world class organization?’” Rear Adm. James Waters said.

The Forged By the Sea commercials are part of a modernization of Navy marketing meant to help the sea service meet its recruiting goals. And it appears to be working.

The Navy met its Fiscal Year 2026 recruiting mission in July, three months ahead of its fall deadline. The 45,000 goal was an increase of 10 percent over the previous year and the largest in more than two decades, Waters said.

In FY 2026, 51.52 percent of recruits’ first contact with Navy Recruiting was through marketing, Waters said.

The Navy introduced artificial intelligence to analyze its collected data to figure out who is the most likely candidate and where the service should spend its money, Waters said.

Chief Navy Counselor Monica Fulwidervaughn, assigned to Navy Talent Acquisition Group Nashville, speaks with cadets from Bearden high school Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps on April 21, 2026. US Navy photo Data management, including the use of Salesforce, was the second focus. Each morning, the Recruiting Operations Center in Millington, Tenn., has an 8 a.m. briefing to go over barriers to recruiting, the waivers process, where the team is in the recruiting goal and how shipping is going, he said.

But the main priority continues to be recruiters, Waters said. This year, Navy Recruiting Command focused on the training recruiters receive.

Instead of going to the recruiter course from the fleet and then to their stations, recruiters now stop by the recruiting station en route to the class.

This allows them to get settled, figure out where they are going to live and sort out issues, like schools for families, Waters said.

“Fundamentally, they then have the vocabulary of recruiting, they have the sense of it, and they know their living situation, they understand that, and they’re more ready to learn,” he said.

The courses that recruiters take over their recruiting career are now more difficult, which helps better prepare them, Waters said.

The command also provided additional tools, such as a texting tool that is used with Salesforce, which automatically logs the conversation and saves hours of manpower.

Sailors stand at attention inside Midway Ceremonial Drill Hall during pass-in-review during pass-in-review onboard U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, May 14, 2026. US Navy photo They also provided a trifold screen attachment for laptops, allowing recruiters to be on the go while still having the work station they need, Waters said.

The strategies used to meet the recruiting goal also helped fill the delayed entry program pool, which is recruits that are not immediately shipped to boot camp. The pool was depleted during tough recruiting years in previous fiscal years.

Now, it is expected to enter Fiscal Year 2027 with 33 percent of recruits in DEP. The Navy entered the current fiscal year at 25 percent. Next year, the goal is to meet 50 percent.

Overall, propensity to serve continues to remain low, but Waters said he views it as how hard his recruiters need to work to gain contact with someone. While people still walk into recruiting stations, it is harder for the Navy to get the attention of a young person. Once a recruiter does, the focus then shifts to making a potential candidate see themselves as a sailor.

“The future is bright, and we are well postured for whatever the official mission is as it comes out for FY 27,” he said.

The Navy has not publicly disclosed its recruiting goal for FY 2027, although the Navy’s budget books released in April had the goal projected to be 36,900 – approximately 9,000 lower than this year’s mission.

The reduction in recruiting goal could be due to a smaller increase in end strength. For FY 2027, the Navy projects an end strength of 356,600, an increase of 3,780. The jump in end strength between FY 25 and FY 26 was higher with the Navy raising end strength by 11,711.

While Recruiting Command is looking for ways to be more efficient and to bring in more recruits, the Navy did not introduce any large policy changes in FY 26 for recruiting, unlike in previous years when the Navy raised its maximum recruit age and changed how many recruits it would bring in with lower scores on entrance exams.

The Future Sailor Preparatory Course remains active and continues to produce results. About 83 percent of recruits in the academic course move on to boot camp, with a 72 percent pass rate for the physical side.

The number of recruits in the course remains small, Waters said. About 6 percent of recruits go into the academic course with between 3-4 percent going to the physical one.

Sailors don their Navy ballcaps during the capping ceremony at USS Trayer (BST-21) onboard Recruit Training Command (RTC), July 30, 2026. US Navy photo Recruits who participate in the Future Sailor Preparatory Course are less likely to attrite within the first year of service, Naval Education and Training Command spokesperson Cmdr. David Gardner told USNI News in an email.

Boot camp attrition rates are roughly 10 percent each year. New policies introduced over the past four years do not seem to have much effect on the rates.

In 2026, 10.18 percent of recruits attrited, 10.39 percent in 2025, 9.26 in 2024 and 9.82 percent in 2023. The highest attrition rates over the past five years were 14.11 percent in 2022 and 11.09 percent in 2021.

Overall first-term contract attrition rates average at 8 percent per fiscal year. FY 2025 saw an 8.5 percent attrition rate, slightly up from FY 2024’s 7.4 percent rate. Like with boot camp, FY 2022 had the highest attrition rate at 9.1 percent, according to data from the Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel.