British Army in Parachute crisis, €9,000 incentive for those who want to join

The historian Parachute Regiment of the British Army, also known as “Paras”, is in a serious personnel crisis. The British Ministry of Defence has offered £7,500 (about €8,800) to soldiers from other infantry units to join the Parachute Regiment. The unprecedented “offer”, if you want to call it that, was notified to personnel in an internal document seen by the DailyMail.

The document says the scheme was put in place to plug the Parachute Regiment's manpower deficit with a "one-off incentive". The Ministry of Defence has refused to publicly say how many troops the Parachute Regiment needs or whether it has used this method to "incentivise" recruitment into elite units in the past.

Composed of 4 battalions, together with the Folgore is among the oldest military parachute units in the world. Founded between 1940 and 1942, it is spread over four battalions:

• 1st Battalion – St Athan (Special Forces)
• 2nd Battalion – Colchester
• 3rd Battalion – Colchester
• 4th Battalion – Pudsey

The 1st Battalion is permanently stationed in the Special Forces Support Group, under the operational command of the British Special Forces. The other three battalions are part of the airborne component of the British Army's rapid reaction unit, the 16 Air Assault Brigade. They are the antechamber of the SAS, a bit like the 186° e 187th Folgore Regiment were for the 9th Regiment Col Moschin until the late 1990s.

The shortage of parachutists would also be felt in special forces units, as the Parachute Regiment provides the largest number of soldiers to the Special Air Service and to the Special Forces Support Group.

The situation has raised concerns in the United Kingdom, a country historically close to its soldiers and its armed forces. Former Defense Minister Mark Francois has blamed the private contractor Capita for the crisis of the personnel of the “Paras”, accusing him of having recruited, for private use (a legal practice in the United Kingdom) personnel from the best regiments of the British army, Paratroopers first and foremost.

The issue puts the spotlight back on the problems of recruitment in the armies of Western countries, a problem that also affects Italy, and on the possible solutions to be implemented to stem the lack of soldiers, including the return to compulsory military service, we talked about it in this article.

It should be remembered that England was the first NATO country to abolish compulsory military service back in 1963, focusing on the creation of an all-professional army. The British armed forces are facing a completely new and, probably, unexpected scenario.