Military housing cannot substitute for competitive pay

Could longer service contracts and better naval housing improve retention without a major pay increase?

Housing would help, but it cannot replace competitive pay; recruitment and retention require both.

Longer contracts and better naval housing might help attract and retain personnel, but service accommodation cannot solve the problem by itself. Stagnant pay and weak recruiting have persisted too long. Service members cannot strike or bargain collectively in the usual way. Linking armed-forces pay to a negotiable civilian public-service scale could provide a fairer mechanism.