Higher-ups at the Navy have instituted new regulations allowing for the recruitment and contracting of applicants who score near the bottom of one of its aptitude tests, according to a Monday report from Military.com. As many as one in every five members of this year’s active-duty enlisted pool could be what the military calls “Category IV” recruits—anyone who holds a high school diploma and scores between the 10th and 30th percentile on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, according to the outlet. The new guidelines come amid a recruitment crunch that sees the Navy facing down an active-duty enlistment goal higher by several thousand sailors than last year’s, which the sea service succeeded in cresting by just a few dozen enlisted recruits. A spokesperson for the Navy Recruiting Command told Military.com that the adjustment of the Armed Forces Qualification Test requirement “removes a potential barrier to enlistment, allowing us to widen the pool of potential recruits.” The spokesperson noted that the test alone was “not the determining factor” for eligibility, and that recruits will still have to meet “the minimum line score requirement for a given Navy rating” in the service’s larger aptitude testing apparatus.
Read it at Military.com
