The Navy announced today that just over 25,000 sailors across the Navy will advance this week to pay grades E-4 through E-6.
In all, more than 96,000 sailors — including active-duty, reserve full-time support and selected reserve — passed this winter's advancement exams and are competing for 25,050 advancement quotas, giving sailors a roughly 26 percent shot at moving up this cycle.
That rate is up more than a full percentage point from last fall's 24.5 percent, when 100,742 successful exam takers were competing for 24,628 advancement quotas.
Navy officials released the spring quota data on Monday. The names of those advanced are expected to be released to commands on Tuesday and made public Wednesday.
Active-duty
On the active-duty side, opportunity increased at all paygrades for an overall advancement of about 25.5 percent, up from 23.9 percent last fall.
A total of 91,493 sailors sat for their exams in March, with 88,040 cutting a passing score for a pass rate of 97 percent, down from last cycle's 97.2 percent.
- Active E-4 advancement opportunity increased to 41.05 percent — up from 38.01 percent last cycle — with 9,491 quotas available.
- Active E-5 advancement opportunity increased to 23.39 percent — up from 22.58 percent last cycle — with 23,118 sailors competing for 8,310 quotas.
- Active E-6 advancement opportunity increased to 14.83 percent — up from 12.15 percent last cycle — with 26,749 sailors competing for 3,968 quotas.
Reserve full-time support
The full-time support community is again outpacing the active and drilling reserve components, with a just above a 37 percent chance to advance this spring, up from an already excellent 35.9 percent chance this past fall. It's the third straight rise for FTS, up from a 30.5 percent opportunity a year ago.
This cycle, 1,975 FTS sailors took the March exams, with 1,804 receiving a passing score. They will compete for a total of 644 quotas.
- FTS E-4 advancement opportunity is the best in the service this cycle with 205 of the 215 earning quota for an advancement rate of 95.35 percent.
- FTS E-5 advancement opportunity dropped to 46.02 percent — down from last cycle's 47.32 percent — with 578 successful exam takers competing for 266 quotas.
- FTS E-6 advancement opportunity increased to 19.68 percent — up from last cycle's 15.81 percent — with 1,011 sailors competing for 199 quotas.
Selected reserve.
Drilling reserve sailors are again seeing good advancement opportunity.
In all, 9,280 reservists passed their advancement exams, and will compete for a total of 2,611 quotas, an advancement opportunity of just over 28 percent, up from last fall's healthy 27.1 percent. This advancement rate is also outpacing the active component for the second best advancement rate overall.
The reserve did not provide Navy Times with the numbers of total exam takers this cycle, so it wasn't possible to calculate the percentage of those passing.
- Reserve E-4 advancement opportunity decreased to 14.4 percent — down from 15.71 percent last cycle — with 1,231 sailors competing for 850 quotas.
- Reserve E-5 advancement opportunity increased to 29.6 percent — up from last cycle's 25.9 percent — with 3,959 sailors competing for 1,172 quotas.
- Reserve E-6 advancement opportunity dropped slightly to 69.05 percent — down from last cycle's 69.65 percent — with 4,090 sailors competing for 589 quotas.
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.
