Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Shripad Naik has informed that Vacancies in the Armed Forces are a result of retirements, pre-mature retirements, attrition due to casualties and injuries. Recruitment in the Armed Forces is a continuous process. The Government has taken a number of measures to reduce the shortages. These include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career. Further, various steps have been taken to make career in the Armed Forces more attractive including improvement in promotion prospects, more attractive pay package, better compensation for risk & hardships, additional family accommodation through Married Accommodation Project (MAP) etc.
Details of strength of Officers in the three Armed Forces (excluding AMC, ADC and MNS), force-wise, are as under:-
| Service | Authorised Strength | Held Strength | Shortage |
| Army
(As on 01.01.2019) |
50312 | 42913 | 7399 |
| Navy
(As on 31.05.2019) |
11557 | 10012 | 1545 |
| Air Force (As on 01.06.2019) |
12625 | 12142 | 483 |
Details of strength of Personnel Below Officers Rank (PBOR)/Airmen/Sailors in the three Armed Forces, force-wise, are as under:
| Service | Authorised Strength | Held Strength | Shortage |
| Army
(As on 01.01.2019) |
1223381 | 1185146* | 38235 |
| Navy (As on 31.05.2019) |
74046 | 57240 | 16806 |
| Air Force
(As on 01.06.2019) |
142917 | 129094 | 13823** |
* Excluding 1718 APS Non-regular JCOs/OR
** Additionally, 10,486 ab-initio trainees are undergoing training at various
training Institutes.