The former head of MI6 and several NATO countries are considering to adopt the Swedish military conscription system.
The former head of MI6 Sir Alex Younger has warned that the British “military industrial complex is shot” and the UK must take a “different approach” to our “reserve forces.”
However, Sir Alex warned in April that the UK has been “infantilised” since the Cold War ended.
Recently Germany’s Defence Minister visited Tegeluddsvägen a conscription testing centre in Stockholm.
Boris Pistorius said, “We need young and well-motivated men and women to defend our countries if they are needed.
“I heard a lot about the Swedish approach and I appreciate it — your approach includes a strong reserve force and we have seen in Ukraine that this is important.”
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In April the former head of MI6 told the BBC, “Our military-industrial complex is shot. We need to do something about that. We need to build up our capabilities.
“I think we need a completely different approach to, for instance, our reserve forces which allows us to call on those people in the event of an emergency.
“Then ultimately in extremis, I think we’d be looking at something like the model I understand exists in places like Sweden.”
Sweden adopted the conscription model in 2014 after Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea and they also rearmed.
Since Sweden implemented the conscription system some 110,000 teenagers are screened annually then a quarter will then be called up to take exams and undertake physical testing as their national service if partial and unlike WWII the whole country will not be called up.
Speaking during an interview on BBC’s Today Podcast Sir Alex said that UK has been “infantilised” since the Cold War ended.
He said that people should be picked based on their skill levels instead of having a blanket wide call up.
He told the BBC’s Today Podcast, “I don’t think this is about blanket conscription.
“But I think it is about thinking about ways in which the broader country would participate and contribute to security in a time of an emergency, which you know is no longer impossible to imagine.”
The Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and the head of the British Army General Sir Patrick Sanders have both called for a discussion to grow the army and the UK should launch a citizen army.
Sir Alex is calling for the military to be strengthened, he argued that there is a set of key skills that will be required in a hybrid war and “more broadly represented across the whole of society.”
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