Linkedin advert for Admiral makes Royal Navy look ‘desperate’

The Royal Navy is coming under sustained fire after advertising for a rear-Admiral on Linkedin. Normally, naval officers rise through the ranks, but this time it appears that there is no one to step into the role and thus, recruiters are trying to lure a retired officer back into the fold.

“It’s unheard of as you can’t recruit externally,” says an ex-navy officer Marine Industry News source. It “makes the navy look desperate. As this is the job that is responsible for the nuclear deterrent, it [public advertising] also undermines the perception of a military that is well run and thus a country that is secure. Madness. It’s one of those own goal moments.”

The role, director of submarines, which the navy describes as ‘responsible for highly classified stealth, elite operations and Trident, our nuclear deterrent,’ comes with a salary of circa £150,000-a-year.

Linkedin navy advert described as ‘utterly shameful’

One former senior submariner told The Times it was “utterly shameful”. He said that when the advert was first published (Dec 2023), the only person who applied was a weapons engineer commodore, “who was not properly qualified.”

Among a myriad of competencies, the qualifications state applicants must ‘be serving as a member of the Reserve Forces or have served with the Regular Forces’. That directive is not acting as a deterrent to commentators on social media who – if they fit the bill – have until 9 Jan to apply.

One says: “Might apply as I was good at playing the game battle ships. Seriously what a state to be in. Come on MOD pull your fingers out…”

Another offers to have a shot. “I can give it a go. I could absolutely smash Harpoon on the PC and as for SSN-21 Seawolf on the Amiga… I can also hold my breath underwater for 48 seconds and can confirm Hunt for Red October is the best submarine film. I’d say I’m ideal.”

Mike Davis-Marks, a retired submariner, told The Times: “It’s genuinely surprising that the navy is not able to generate a serving two-star that has the right experience and qualifications.

“The service used to take a lot of care to create sufficient officers to ensure it had a choice as to who would do a senior role.”

The former commanding officer of HMS Turbulent says that “something is not right with the naval manpower pipeline within the service”.

Candidates should have been approached directly

Marine Industry News‘ source continues: “Really they are using Linkedin to appeal to the retired community, yet there’s a very narrow group of people qualified and [they] could have been approached directly.” This begs the discussion as to whether the powers that be within the service are deliberately looking to stoke up public discussion about the Royal Navy and its current recruitment predicament?

The former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, was last week quoted as saying that Britain’s warships are “dropping like flies”. He said that the UK needs a much bigger surface fleet, as the Royal Navy is presently limited in what it is able to achieve. Underpinning this, a drastic shortage of sailors is forcing the Royal Navy to decommission two of its warships due to lack of personnel. In order to man new frigates, HMS Westminster, recently refurbished at cost of circa £100m, and HMS Argyll will allegedly be decommissioned this year.

“Oh wow! It’s so tragically pathetic it’s almost funny,” says a third X (formerly Twitter) commentator. “Clearly useless grunters then, no crews, no offensive weapons, no ships… And the government still insist on trying to play with the big boys.. glad I left years ago. Not sure if should learn Russian first or Chinese.”

Main image courtesy of the Royal Navy, via Linkedin advert for rear-Admiral.