Armed Forces
Czechs Consider Their Options Regarding Reinforcement of The Military. Army’s Status “Too Peacetime”
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The Czech Republic is considering to reintroduce conscription and training of the reserve forces, in the light of the rapidly changing geopolitical and military situation in Mid-Eastern Europe. Czech Ministry of Defence considers several options, however, at the moment, only training of volunteers has been planned.
According to the Lidove Noviny newspaper, due to the Ukrainian crisis and increasing level of danger, Czech Ministry of Defence also considers expansion of the reserve forces. Other solutions that could be implemented in the current situation, include reintroduction of conscription and obligatory military training for a larger number of the Czech citizens.
We shall not ignore the current threat, we need to be ready. Ukraine shows that the conflicts may break out quickly and relatively close to us.
Meanwhile, the analyses show that the Czech Armed Forces are not prepared for a potential conflict, which would develop rapidly. Significant lacks in the reserves have been noted, Army human resources are sufficient for a peace time, however they are not enough to counteract any crises. Should a crisis situation develop rapidly, there could be no time to train the personnel sufficiently. Hence, there is an urgent need to replenish the forces, if a rapid escalation of conflict would be the case. The Czechs are closely observing what is happening in Lithuania (which has introduced conscription just recently) or e.g. Poland which started to train the volunteers.
Czech Ministry of Defence, according to the press spokesperson, Jan Pejšek, is in the process of analysing several scenario, however, reintroducing one year obligatory military service is out of the question so far. Currently, the volunteer training variants are being investigated. The scenario which is quantitatively most significant assumes that there would be a compulsory, one month military training, which is to be state-reimbursed.
According to the content of the memorandum related to increases in the field of defence spending, signed by the most important Czech political parties, the Ukrainian crisis shows that Europe, or direct neighbourhood of Europe, may become a theatre for a conventional armed conflict and maximum time, from emergence of the threat to the actual start of operations, may last for a few weeks.