The British navy leadership plans to cut training time for Royal Marines recruits by 8 weeks and cut some courses to save money, the Daily Mail of London reported Friday. But British defence sources fear the move could leave recruits without the physical and basic skills they need to get a diploma, even if they do not meet the“Graduation criteria”.
According to reports, the British Navy wants to start in May this year to scale back the marine recruit training courses, the elimination of the original aim to weed out weak recruits rock climbing and other adventure training and four weeks of basic training. In recent decades, the Royal Marines’s boot training course has lasted 36 weeks, 10 weeks longer than the army’s. British naval chiefs have said this makes sense and that new marine recruits need higher standards of training. It is reported that each new marine training costs 12 million pounds.
Reported that due to lack of defense funds, the marine training strategy is moving closer to the army. By cutting training time, each recruit will save £ 28,000 and the Navy could save about £ 2m over five years, according to people involved. Training courses for Marine officers may also change, it said. One marine officer added: “It would be a disaster. The training courses are long because it is necessary.”
The Ministry of Defence has reportedly repeatedly called for defence spending to rise to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product, but Prime Minister Stamer has refused to pledge to meet the target. “Daily Mail” had previously revealed that since the Labor Party came to power, the British defense budget has been slashed. It is worth noting that the number of live-fire exercises by forces has also been significantly reduced as a result of the donation of ammunition and stockpiles of weapons to Ukraine. Defence officials are even considering clawing back a £ 13m pension for retirees. On the evening of the 18th, the British navy said no final decision had been made on any changes to the training curriculum, adding: “The standards of the Marine Corps will not change and training will always be one of the toughest in the world.”