The White Army

Officer in the British military are becoming more white-dominated. The numbers of non-white officers has fallen by 16 per cent since 2009, official data shows. Even taking into account the overall drop in the size of the armed forces in recent years, the figures still represent an eight per cent fall in black and minority ethnic officers in the space of six years.

The proportion of officers in the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds is now just 2.3 per cent – down from 2.5 per cent in 2009.

There was not a single BAME candidate among Royal Marine officers passing out last year – while just 20 black and 25 Asian officers serve in the Royal Navy, out of a total of around 7,000. Of the army’s 13,000 officers, only 100 are Asian and 60 are black. And of the RAF’s 8,000 officers, 45 are Asian and 30 black. Around 45 per cent of BAME officers are mixed race.