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Keyboard warriors could be the real life future of the British Army after ministers pumped nearly £3million into online recruitment.

Figures show the Ministry of Defence forked out £2.4million on Facebook advertising and £420,000 on Twitter ads between March 2015 and December last year.

It came as Forces top brass battled to control falling numbers fuelled by low morale and pay freezes.

Desperate military chiefs turned to the web in the hope of triggering interest in Army careers among a key target age group.

(Image: Getty)

Revealing the £2.8million bill following a written Commons questions, Defence Minister Mark Lancaster said: “The figures include £2,000 spent boosting Facebook posts in 2016-17 and £19,400 in 2017-18.

“The target audience for boosted Facebook posts are those aged between 16 and 24 for the Regular Army and between 16 and 35 for the Reserves that have expressed an interest in a career with the British Army.”

However, the taxpayers’ cash injected into recruiting via the controversial social media firms failed to plug black holes across the Forces.

(Image: Getty) (Image: PA)

Latest personnel figures published the Ministry of Defence show that in the 12 months to October last year, the number of recruits joining the Forces plunged by 1,380 compared with the previous 12 month period.

According to the most recently available figures, the overall size of the Army fell to 77,440 in October - more than 4,000 short of its 82,000 target.

Experts have previously warned of lazy youngsters sitting in front of computers, tablets and smart phone screens, often playing “shoot ‘em up” video games such as Call of Duty.

(Image: Getty Images) (Image: PA)

But it seems they could hold the key to the UK’s defence and national security in coming years.

Labour MP Ruth Smeeth, who sits on the Commons Defence Committee, said: “Social media plays a huge role in our day to day lives and it’s only sensible for our Armed Forces to be using it to reach out to potential recruits.

“But no number of flash hash tags are going to make up for the squeeze on pay and conditions that are draining morale and turning off new recruits.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

“It’ll take more than a Snapchat filter to hide the raw deal our troops are getting under this Government.

“Maybe the MoD should focus less on building a strong Twitter game and more on offering strong incentives to enlist - starting with fair pay, decent accommodation and more flexible working arrangements.

“Until they do that, those potential recruits will keep on swiping left.”