Navy seeks to increase end strength amid recruitment challenges

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The Navy aims to bolster its active-duty end strength by more than 5,000 sailors next fiscal year, despite the difficulties all the services are having with recruiting and retaining service members.

In its $255.8 billion fiscal 2024 budget request, which includes $53.2 billion for the Marine Corps, the Department of the Navy has asked Congress to approve an active naval force of 347,000 enlisted sailors and officers, up from the estimated 341,736 sailors serving this fiscal year.