Britain’s new Defense Minister John Healey wants to recruit more people for the military and is also looking at people who are particularly good at gaming.
Britain’s Defense Minister John Healey wants to specifically recruit computer gamers for the military. “If you are a top gamer or programmer, your country needs you,” said Healey at a Labour Party conference in Liverpool. There he announced that he wanted to recruit more people for the armed forces.
Over the past ten years, more than a million people have applied, but many have given up, partly because the process took months, criticised Healey. He spoke of a crisis in recruitment left behind by the previous conservative government and announced that he wanted to tackle it.
As a first step, he has abolished 100 outdated requirements that had prevented people from joining the military, said Healey. According to the British news agency PA, these include cases of hay fever, eczema and acne. The military should also speed up the application process.
Danger of cyber attacks
He also wants to set up a direct recruitment channel for people with cyber skills, Healey said in Liverpool. He told the Sun newspaper that Britain is increasingly exposed to cyber attacks and needs the best talent. The country also has too few drone pilots, the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Healey is sticking to the goal of increasing the United Kingdom’s defense spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product and has again pledged solidarity with Ukraine at the party conference. Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia’s war of aggression for two and a half years, with the support of other states.
Source: Stern
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