Sweden is considering calling up former officers as young as 70 to active duty to ensure its military is ready for times of crisis, its defense minister said.
The proposal is among several options suggested by a government-ordered inquiry in 2024, the year the country joined NATO, to examine how Sweden’s growing armed forces could be equipped for conflict.
Presenting the results of the government inquiry, Defense Minister Pal Jonsson told a news conference on Monday that the Nordic country of 10.5 million people was facing “serious times.”
“This means that we are now investing very significant resources in military defense,” Jonsson said.
In addition to the equipment investments already underway, Sweden also needed to ensure that sufficient military personnel would be available in a crisis.
The government’s inquiry has proposed raising the retirement age for former military officers to active duty to 70, from the current 47.
It has also proposed lifting the limit on former conscripts being sent to the military.
Currently, the “duty to send” remains a maximum of ten years after their last military service, but the inquiry has suggested removing this limit and instead placing those who have not served ten or more years in the Swedish military’s reserve force.
Jonsson said the proposals would be sent for review, with the hope of presenting a bill to parliament early next year.
The country reintroduced compulsory military service in 2017, seven years after abolishing it.
In the draft, the government announced it would increase military spending by about 300 billion kronor ($31 billion) over the next decade, with the aim of increasing spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2030, AFP reports.
