Royal Navy fast-tracks cyber skills to the front-line

Usually recruits for the Royal Navy undertake a ten-week basic training programme but for this cohort, who have joined on bespoke Terms and Conditions of Service, an abridged five-week course provided them with the essentials to be a sailor in the Royal Navy, including training them in Core Values and Standards, physical fitness, safety, and of course ceremonial drill. 

The Training Branch of the Royal Navy Reserve was tasked to deliver the programme at HMS Raleigh given their experience of running compressed courses for Reservists. 

All 14 of the Cyber recruits successfully completed the course, marked with a pass-out parade and Captain Jez Ussher, Commanding Officer of HMS Raleigh, reviewing the recruits, before they moved on to their Phase Two training at HMS Collingwood. 

By the end of 2025, these new recruits will be embedded into operational roles, helping to  defend the UK’s networks. 

“This programme is an innovative approach to solving recruitment gaps in key skill shortage areas,” said Commander Alec Harper . “It shows that basic training can be compressed where specialist civilian skills are held and is a good test for future models of lateral entry into the Service.”

This is all part of a government scheme to get armed forces recruits into specialist roles to tackle the growing cyber threat to the UK.

The ‘cyber pipeline’ scheme comes as the Ministry of Defence has had to protect UK networks from increasing numbers of ‘sub-threshold’ attacks – more than 90,000 in the last two years.

In an increasingly volatile world where technology is rapidly advancing, the nature of warfare is changing. Cyber capabilities present the threat of hybrid attacks which the UK must be able to protect against to ensure our national security and deliver on the government’s Plan for Change. It is paramount that the armed forces are fit to face the threats of the future.