Norway wants to increase the number of conscripts by 50% each year

7 months ago 31

The government announced on Tuesday that it will do this by modernising training infrastructure and creating new positions within the defence forces.

The Norwegian government announced in a press conference that it will increase the number of conscripts from around 9,000 today to 13,500 a year, although it admitted that it will take time to do this properly.

“Now that the Norwegian Armed Forces are set to grow, the government will increase the intake by 50% in the coming years. The number will increase by 4,500,” said Norwegian Defence Minister Bjørn Arild Gram on Tuesday.

Norway has a partial conscription system, which means that not everyone serves. Those selected from among citizens aged between 19 and 47 take an aptitude test to determine their suitability and undergo basic military training, which may be followed by reserve duty, with a total service commitment of about 19 months.

While the number has increased in recent years, around 9,000 people are selected for their first military service each year, around 15% of those called up. But now the Norwegian government wants to reach a target of 25% of those called up by 2036, with 13,500 conscripts expected to serve.

“We need to take better care of the people we already have, and we need new ones,” said Arild Gram.

According to Norwegian Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, up to 400 new positions will be created to efficiently manage the expected increase in the number of conscripts.

“People are the most important resource of the Norwegian Armed Forces. We must have enough people with the right expertise at the right time”, Gram said.

According to the Norwegian Defence Ministry, the Defence Forces Recruit Training Centre in Terningmoen, 140 kilometres north of Oslo, will be modernised and expanded to train about 1,800 recruits four times a year, up from about 300 today.

To facilitate a rapid increase in training capacity, the Norwegian Armed Forces will lease civilian infrastructure until Terningmoen is fully developed, scheduled for 2036.

The announcement comes two weeks after the Danish government called for conscription to be extended to women and for the length of service to be increased from four to 11 months, despite concerns that the country’s defence forces lack personnel to train new recruits efficiently.

(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)