Britain prepares to call back 95,000 veterans as Russia fears grow 95,000 veterans — and an Army of just 71,000Britain is preparing for an extraordinary military exercise next year — one that could see 95,000 former servicemen and women tested for recall in a national emergency. The exercise is designed to discover whether Britain's huge pool of former military personnel can actually be found, contacted, equipped and brought back into service if the country ever needs them. And there is a rather uncomfortable reason for the exercise. The British Army now has only around 71,000 full-time, fully trained troops ready for deployment. The veterans Britain forgot aboutArmed Forces minister Louise Sandher-Jones says the strategic reserve will be exercised on a scale “we haven’t seen for a long time.” That means the Government wants to test the machinery required to call up former soldiers, sailors and airmen — and make sure they can actually be turned into an effective fighting force. There is just one small problem. The Government has previously admitted that Britain does not have an effective system for tracking and engaging many people who have recently left the military. In other words, before you can mobilise the veterans, you have to know where they are. “I just filed it away”Sandher-Jones knows the problem from personal experience. She said that when she left the Army and discovered she was part of the strategic reserve, she simply “filed it away and never thought about it again.” That attitude is apparently no longer acceptable. The Government now wants the reserve treated as a genuine military capability rather than a name sitting quietly on an old database. The exercise will test the entire process — from calling people up to equipping and preparing them for service. From emergency recall to war preparationsThe legal position is already unusual. Former regular and reserve officers retain recall liability for life, while the Ministry of Defence is required to maintain contact with former personnel during the first six years after they leave full-time service. Currently, retired military personnel can be recalled in circumstances including national danger, a great emergency or an attack on Britain. New legislation would go further, allowing them to be mobilised for “war-like preparations.” And the age limit for mobilisation is being raised from 55 to 65. Suddenly that old military service is looking rather less like history. Britain is preparing for a very different RussiaThe exercise comes amid growing concern inside Western governments about the possibility of a major confrontation with Russia later this decade. British intelligence officials have warned about Russian sabotage and other activity directed at Western countries. British factories involved in producing drones for Ukraine have also faced threats from Moscow. The Government's message is not that war with Russia is inevitable. It is that Britain needs to be prepared if the security situation deteriorates dramatically. And that is a very different proposition from simply hoping it doesn't happen. The Army is getting bigger — very slowlyThere is one piece of good news for the Ministry of Defence. Last week it announced that, for the first time since 2021, more people had joined the full-time armed forces over a 12-month period than had left. But the improvement is hardly spectacular. The Army increased by just 170 personnel. That is not exactly a recruitment revolution. Britain therefore finds itself trying to rebuild military capacity while simultaneously facing questions about defence spending and the size of its active forces. The extraordinary numbersPut the figures together and the situation looks rather striking. Strategic reserve: around 95,000. Full-time Army: around 71,000. Active reservists: around 32,000. Britain potentially has a very large military manpower pool. The question is whether it can actually turn those numbers on a spreadsheet into people who can be contacted, equipped, organised and deployed. That is precisely what next year's exercise is supposed to discover. The question nobody wants to answerThere is something rather sobering about Britain having to practise calling back people who thought their military careers were finished. Nobody is saying that 95,000 veterans are about to be marched back into uniform to fight Vladimir Putin. But the fact that the Government thinks it is necessary to test the machinery for doing so tells us something about the security environment Britain now believes it faces. For years, the strategic reserve appears to have been largely forgotten. Now Westminster is suddenly remembering that 95,000 people are sitting in the background with military experience. The big question is whether Britain will be able to find them when it really matters. And perhaps the even bigger question is why it didn't make sure it could in the first place. SOURCE
