Navy Has 20,000 Gaps at Sea Due to Training Backlog, Past Recruiting Shortfall

[Tony]

Despite a historic recruiting year, the Navy will need to continue to bring in more junior sailors to fully man at-sea billets, a problem that will likely continue into the next two to three years and is compounded by delays in the training pipelines, a Navy official told USNI News.

The Navy has a total of 20,683 gaps-at sea as of Dec. 3, Stacee McCarroll, a service spokesperson, told USNI News on Monday. The majority of the gaps at-sea are in the apprentice level, which covers E-1 through E-3.

At the apprentice level, there are 16,369 gaps at-sea, followed by 3,301 among journeyman sailors (E-4 to E-6) and 1,013 in the supervisor level, which includes sailors at ranks E-7 and above, McCarroll said.