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, the defence minister said on Monday.
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.
Sweden broke two centuries of military non-alignment to join NATO in the aftermath of Russia's 2022 full-scaled invasion of Ukraine, which sparked alarm in Stockholm and Finland that Moscow could eventually threaten them.
Presenting the results of the government probe, Defence Minister Pal Jonson told a press conference on Monday that the Nordic country of 10.5 million people faced "serious times".
"This means that we are now making very significant investments in the military defence," Jonson told reporters. In addition to investing in equipment already underway, Sweden also needed to make sure that enough military personnel would be available in a crisis.
The government probe suggested raising the age that former military officers could be recalled to active duty to 70, from the current 47.
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