ARMY chiefs have doubled the bounty on offer to soldiers who persuade friends to join up for frontline duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A two-month pilot scheme that ended in January resulted directly in 100 new recruits. The bounty then was £650.

Now, with manpower gaps in many of the infantry and artillery regiments, it will rise to £1,300 for each recruit.

The prospect of being sent to Iraq has hit recruitment and the new three-year expanded mission in Afghanistan, where 4,500 service personnel are deployed, is adding to the strain.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, announced yesterday that more troops will be sent to Afghanistan next month. A unit of 130 specialists from 34 Squadron of the RAF Regiment will strengthen security at Kandahar base where the Army’s Apache and Chinook helicopters are located.

The £65,000 cost of the pilot recruitment scheme was reckoned to be good value for money. However, army chiefs realised that a greater financial incentive was needed: although overall recruiting was encouraging, more and more youngsters considering a military career were choosing units such as the Royal Signals or Royal Engineers or the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers that offered skills training.

Sources said that the £1,300 bounty was being targeted specifically at infantry and artillery regiments, which form the backbone of the combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gerald Howarth, a Conservative defence spokesman, said: “The war in Iraq is unpopular and is undoubtedly having an adverse affect on mums because of all the publicity about roadside bombs and Warriors being set on fire. If only the mums got to hear of all the good work being carried out in Basra and the contributions being made by our troops, it might make a difference.”

Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, asked the Ministry of Defence in February about the manpower strengths in all the infantry regiments but is still awaiting a reply.

“The fact that they have now doubled the bounty suggests that recruitment and retention is more of a problem than they have admitted to,” Dr Fox said.

The Army has an overall recruiting budget of more than £85 million. An internal army document leaked in January forecast a shortfall of almost 3,000 soldiers by this month and named the regiments with the biggest gaps in manpower as the Welsh Guards, with a predicted shortfall of 165; the three battalions of The Parachute Regiment, down by almost 270; and The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, now the 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, short by 139 soldiers.

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Army personnel are currently deployed in more than 80 countries including Germany, Belize, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and Diego Garcia

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