Carsten Breuer urges ‘gender equality’ in government’s proposal for new a national service intended to meet Nato obligations
The head of Germany’s armed forces has called for women as well as men to be included in the government’s plans to revive conscription on a limited scale.
The defence ministry wants to introduce a “new military service”, loosely based on the Swedish model, where all 18-year-old men would be obliged to put their names down but only the most suitable and motivated 5,000 would be called up.
The aim is to make up for a shortage of 20,000 regular soldiers and ultimately to establish a pool of at least another 100,000 reservists with military training.
