Commission age

[Brewell]

Hi, I am 30 this year and will be joining as an AET in June. Hoping for a bit of sea time if I am lucky enough to work on the F35’s on one of the carriers!

I want to work towards getting my A level’s and try for an officer role after some years. I would just like to know if the age restrictions are still in place once you are in the MOB or does it not apply when you are already a serving raiting?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Ninja_Stoker]

So far as I'm aware, as long as you can complete your term of contract and return of service before you reach normal retirement age and meet the "in service" academia criteria, the age restrictions applied to direct entry Officers do not apply to in-service commissions.

 

[pompeyexpat]

Have a good read of this - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/documents/reference-library/br-3-vol-1/chapter-50.pdf#page13

The cut off for UY Engineers is 35. For SUY Engineers there is a requirement to have been a PO for 3 years which will affect the earliest age you can commission. There is a specific section on air engineering and expectations for promotion depending on age.

 

[Brewell]

Thank you very much! All very informative, I will look into this as much as I can, but I suppose I won’t really know until I join.

 

[pompeyexpat]

I don't know what the sort of average timescales for promotion are in the Air Engineering world (I'm a submariner), but my advice would be to start making noises about having your papers raised early and try for the UY route. Not that you can't enjoy a rewarding career as an SUY, I commissioned at 40 (had my 40th at Dartmouth) and I'm enjoying my work more now that I had done in a long time. But of course not joining till 30 and having the requirement to have been a PO for at least 3 years will probably mean that if you were successful in obtaining a commission it would be sometime after 40, which limits your reach somewhat.

And, while I'll caveat this next statement by again saying I'm not a WAFU, there is a fair amount of competition for SUY AE commissions. There have been at least 3 MESM officers that were previously AET's and there was a General Service WE Officer at Dartmouth with me that had come from the Air world, having swapped as he was on his last shout for selection as an AE.