The Navy will increase meritorious advancement quotas this year. Those moving up through no-test advancements will represent over 10 percent of all the Navy's E-4 through E-6 sailors who who will advance, up from 5.5 percent just two years ago.

It's a significant step for the Navy's Meritorious Advancement Program, which was slated for the scrap heap of Navy personnel programs just four years ago after officials deemed it was to blame for many of the Navy's overmanning issues.

But Vice Adm. Robert Burke, the chief of naval personnel, now sees this as a key part of the Navy's advancement system as he unveiled this year's MAP season details April 3. 

"We continue to refine and improve the program to further empower command triads to recognize their most highly talented sailors through immediate advancement," Burke wrote in the message.    

This year's version, which the message says will be in effect from July 1 through Aug. 31, features eligibility expansion for the program by increasing quotas to 4,199 Navy-wide, up from 3,081 the quotas last year and nearly double the quotas from 2015.

This year, big Navy will also allow COs to waive time-in-rate requirements for those advancing to E-4 and E-5, further expanding the numbers of eligible sailors.

Also new this year will be the addition of the selected reserve, which will lay out their own program, policy and quotas in an all-Navy Reserve message in the coming weeks.

The expansion will allow the Navy to expand the program and offer quotas to more units. Quotas are divvied by what the Navy calls Unit Identification Codes, or UICs. Under the old Command Advancement Program, quotas were given only to sea duty commands based on the total number of sailors in the command.

This year, officials are using a formula to allow for a broad application and will issue quotas to 2,798 UICs, up from 907 last year.

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.

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