Navy personnel officials will advance nearly 22,000 active, drilling reserve and reserve full-time support sailors this spring.
The bad news is that this cycle, the chance for individual sailors to move up has gone down.
Across the total force, 96,684 sailors sat for their exams in February and March, with 88,124 passing. Those sailors are competing for one of the 21,745 quotas being offered between the three paygrades, which amounts to a nearly-24 percent shot to advance.
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This year’s chance is three percentage points lower than last fall, making this cycle the first downward trend in total force advancements since fall 2016.
The Navy released the spring quotas data on Monday. The names of those advanced are expected to be released to commands on Tuesday and made public Wednesday.
ACTIVE DUTY
On the active-duty side, opportunity dropped across the board at all three paygrades.
Overall, the active force has a nearly-23 percent chance at moving up, almost five percentage points lower than last fall. It’s the lowest rate of advancement in nearly two years.
A total of 84,367 active-duty sailors took their tests this spring, with 81,850 passing. These sailors were competing for 18,584 total quotas.
Check out the active-duty sailor advancements below.
Active Duty Cycle Spring 2018 E-4
Active Duty Cycle Spring 2018 E-5
Active Duty Cycle Spring 2018 E-6
RESERVE FULL-TIME SUPPORT
Reserve Full-Time Support sailors saw a rise in their shot to advance this cycle after a slight dip last fall. This means the FTS force has seen increases in four out of the past five advancement cycles.
With 1,833 sailors taking tests, 1,757 passing sailors were eligible for one of the 503 available quotas.
Also up in the FTS are test failures, which doubled to 76 from last cycle’s 38.
Check out the advancement chances for Reserve Full-Time Support sailors below.
Full Time Support Spring 2018 E-4 through E-6
SELECTED RESERVE
Drilling reserve sailors are again seeing a rise in advancement opportunity, with a 33.6 percent chance to advance, up from last cycle’s 30.8 percent. That rise again gives drilling reservists the best overall rate of advancement.
In all, 10,310 sat for their exams, with 7,813 cutting a passing score. Those sailors were competing for one of 2,625 total quotas. It’s the selected reserve’s fourth consecutive increase.
The dark lining is that the Selected Reserve also had the highest failure rate in the total force at 24.2 percent. The majority of those failures came at the E-7 level, which came in at almost 36 percent.
Check out the Selected Reserve advancements below.
Selected Reserve Spring 2018 E-4
Selected Reserve Spring 2018 E-5
Selected Reserve Spring 2018 E-6
To see how long sailors typically have to wait before moving up to the next rank, see the Navy Times advancement calculator and select your own rating.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
