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LONDON Frontline troops are
'unfit and illiterate' Unfit, near-illiterate
recruits are being given frontline roles in Britain's armed forces because of a
desperate lack of manpower, a damning report has found. A Ministry of Defence
review showed that the fighting strength of the Army, Royal Navy and RAF is
being put in jeopardy by pressure to pass out as many recruits as possible. The study reveals that
70 per cent of trainees in one camp had "a reading age of an 11-year-old or
younger". Other recruits who failed tests, including the military swimming
test, were being passed onto frontline units. The report adds that
binge drinking is so severe in some places that a weekday ban on alcohol is
being introduced. The findings are sure
to be seized on by the Tories as proof that " overstretch" and low
recruitment is resulting in pressure to lower standards. The investigation,
triggered by deaths at the Deepcut barracks in Surrey, featured visits to 12
training units and interviews with more than 1,200 trainees and 300 instructors.
"A widely-held
concern of the instructors was that they were passing on risk to the
frontline," the report says. "Some instructors
report that they are under pressure to pass on as many candidates as possible
and that quality is often sacrificed to quantity." The ministry
specifically highlights "a failure to apply rigorously the military skills
and physical fitness entry and exit standards". The report criticises
the lack of competitive sport and failure to provide enough food. Access to
alcohol was another problem, with too many trainees drunk and ill-disciplined.
Commanding officers felt the impact of drinking was "an unwelcome
burden". · All black African recruits to Britain's armed forces face being screened for HIV and Hepatitis B after it emerged that the infections are being transmitted between trainees. An MoD report found that screening may have to be introduced because recruits were having sex with each other. |