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Sweden is considering calling up former officers as old as 70 to active duty as it seeks to ensure its military is prepared in times of crisis, its defence minister said.
The proposal is among several options suggested by an inquiry that the government ordered in 2024, the year the country joined NATO, to look at how Sweden’s expanding armed forces would be assured of personnel in a conflict.
Presenting the results of the government probe, defence minister Pal Jonson told a press conference on Tuesday AEST that the Nordic country of 10.5 million people faced “serious times”.
“This indicates that we are currently committing to very substantial investments in military defence,” Jonson told reporters.
Sweden also needed to make sure that enough military personnel would be available in a crisis.
The government inquiry suggested raising the age that former military officers could be recalled to active duty to 70, from the current 47.
It also proposed removing a limit on military deployment for former conscripts.
Currently, “deployment duty” remains for a maximum of 10 years after the most recent military service, but the inquiry suggested scrapping this limit and instead placing those who hadn’t served for 10 years or more into the Swedish Armed Forces’ reserve force.
Jonson mentioned that the proposals would be circulated for feedback, with the aim of presenting a bill to parliament early next year.
After the Cold War ended in 1991, Sweden drastically slashed its defence spending as it focused its military efforts on international peacekeeping missions.
But it reversed course following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and started increasing military expenditure.
In March, the government announced it would increase defence spending by about 300 billion krona ($47 billion) over the next decade, aiming to increase spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2030.
