Germany is to reintroduce a limited form of military service, though the plan falls far short of the defence ministry’s original goal of restoring the system of conscription scrapped 13 years ago.
“Everyone must ask themselves what they’d be prepared to do if we were attacked,” said defence minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday. “The question is . . . how do we secure our civilian life if war breaks out?”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Germany to take a much more robust approach to defence, investing heavily in its armed forces and preparing to station an armoured brigade in Lithuania — its first permanent foreign deployment since the second world war.
Pistorius has said the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, must be made “war ready” as concerns increase about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggressive intentions towards Nato, the western military alliance.
Defence ministry officials described the minister’s model, which borrows heavily from a system used by Sweden, as a “selective form of military service based on a voluntary principle but containing obligatory elements if necessary”.
Under the plan, men aged 18 will be required to fill out a form with information about their willingness and ability to serve in the army and then, if selected, to undergo a medical examination. Recruits will then be chosen from those tested.
But opposition politicians expressed disappointment with the proposal. “Considering the minister has been talking about [reintroducing] military service for nine months, the plans are pretty thin and vague,” said Serap Güler, the Christian Democrats’ spokesperson on defence.
Former chancellor Angela Merkel scrapped the military draft in 2011, but the Bundeswehr has since struggled to overcome persistent troop shortages.
The government has plans to increase the size of the army from 182,000 to 203,000 by 2031. But military officials believe it needs as many as 460,000 soldiers to defend Germany in the event of an attack.
Pistorius said his plan would lead to the recruitment of 200,000 reservists — in addition to the 60,000 the Bundeswehr currently has.
Of the 400,000 18-year-olds who would be approached by the Bundeswehr under his plan every year, he estimated about a quarter would likely express an interest in serving. Of these, 40,000 to 50,000 would be invited to undergo a medical examination.
“We will select the most motivated, the fittest and the most suitable,” Pistorius said.
He noted the Bundeswehr only had the capacity to train 5,000 additional recruits a year, though that number would rise in the coming years.
The armed forces had shrunk significantly since the end of the cold war, he said, leading to the divestment of barracks, munition dumps and military accommodation “on a massive scale”, he said.
Those who sign up will be offered six months of basic training which can be extended to a total of 23 months of service. Recruits will then become part of the reserve force, with an obligation to undergo annual training.
Pistorius’s more ambitious plans, including a scheme to bring back compulsory military service, encountered strong resistance from military chiefs, who were wary about an influx of raw, untrained young men, and leftwing politicians in his Social Democrat (SPD) party, who feel uneasy about Germany’s new focus on the military.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who like Pistorius is from the SPD, in May said he considered a return to a conscript army “unworkable”.
The ministry then shifted to a hybrid service model, which would not involve mass compulsory service but would instead be aimed at encouraging more voluntary participation. Pistorius was keen to emulate the kind of national service models used in many Scandinavian countries.
The Bundeswehr hopes the model will improve recruitment by identifying potential candidates and encouraging enrolment, through a range of incentives and training opportunities, in understaffed niche fields such as cyber security and medicine.
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