US Army’s 250 birthday: Military branch surpasses 2025 recruiting goals months ahead of schedule

The U.S. Army announced that it has surpassed its fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals four months ahead of schedule following years of falling short of its quota. 

The milestone marks a potential turning point in one of the military’s most persistent challenges: recruitment.

Last week, the Army announced that it had signed contracts with more than 61,000 future soldiers, which is more than 10% higher than the 55,000 recruits targeted in fiscal 2024. Recently, the average contracts per day have also exceeded last year’s levels by as much as 56% during the same period, according to the Army. 

“I’m incredibly proud of our U.S. Army recruiters and drill sergeants,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said, crediting them for helping the Army accomplish its fiscal year 2025 annual recruiting goal ahead of schedule.

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Earlier this month. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while honoring the 81st anniversary of D-Day, credited the new wave of patriotism among today’s young Americans for driving an uptick in military recruitment.

Hegseth told “Fox & Friends” co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt, Lawrence Jones and Brian Kilmeade that the morale shift is across all branches.

“It’s also the Air Force, it’s also the Navy, it is also the Marine Corps, Coast Guard and, as the president says, law enforcement,” he continued. 

“Across the board, the spirit of our country, [there’s a] willingness and desire to serve, because they see leadership that believes in the country that’s going to have their back, that says, ‘We want you to be warriors. We’re not doing this politically correct garbage anymore. We’re doing war fighting. We’re training, we’re preparing, we’re focused on [getting] back to basics and… the young people of America have responded, and they’ll continue to respond,” Hegseth said.

It’s an about-face from the challenges the military has had in recent years. 

In fiscal year 2022, for instance, the Army fell short of reaching its goal by 25%, according to the Georgetown University Center for Security Studies. Despite deploying a series of sweeping changes to its recruiting enterprise in 2023, the Army missed its goal again, with the Department of Defense noting that it had been “without a doubt the toughest recruitment year for the Military Services since the inception of the All-volunteer Force.” 

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Among its changes, the Army expanded its focus to a larger share of the labor market and the creation of a specialized talent acquisition workforce. It also deployed medical providers to Military Entrance Processing Stations across the country to help make the enlistment process more efficient, and leveraged innovative new technologies to reach expanded audiences and help identify candidates interested in military service.

There was also a notable expansion of the branch’s Future Soldier Preparatory Course, which helps potential recruits overcome academic and physical fitness barriers to service, while allegedly “not sacrificing quality for quantity.”

While the numbers started to rebound in 2024, with the armed forces recruiting 12.5% more personnel than the previous year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called attention to the issue earlier this year, with several mentioning it during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing in January. 

America’s strong economy – except during the pandemic-induced slowdown – has been partly blamed for declining enlistment in recent years, according to the Hoover Institution. Even during the height of the pandemic, recruitment remained difficult as in-person interactions were restricted, basic training programs were temporarily halted and eligibility rates declined. The pandemic further reduced the already small pool of young Americans qualified to serve, according to a report from the Georgetown University Center for Security Studies. 

Today, fewer than 30% of American youths meet the requirements for military service due to a range of physical, academic and behavioral disqualifiers, according to the April report. 

FOX News’ Greg Wehner and Liz Friden contributed to this report.