By Michael Kahn
VALEC, Czech Republic (Reuters) – As instructors give orders, dozens of students taking part in a Czech army pilot program aimed at boosting dwindling troop numbers move through forest underbrush, armed with combat rifles, learning proper firing positions.
Like most former Soviet satellite states that are now NATO members, the Czech Republic has been failing to meet its recruitment targets for years and is struggling to maintain its strength. As a result, army units are understaffed and unable to reach combat readiness. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on the edge of Eastern Europe, is a stark reminder of the potential threat Moscow poses to the region.
About 80 Czech high school students have chosen to spend part of their summer experiencing military life during a four-week training program held in a closed military zone 94 km west of the capital Prague.
But General Karel Rehka, head of the Czech armed forces, called the current system unsustainable.
He told Reuters that the program run by the 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade – an army unit operating at just 50 percent capacity due to a shortage of soldiers – gives students a taste of military life.
“We want to deter any potential adversary in the future,” Rehka said. “If we do nothing to address the lack of human resources in the army…, it could mean that we will not be able to preserve our peace and deter any potential enemy.”
In 2021, the Czechs reached 56% of their recruitment target, with the aim of reaching 85% in 2022, according to the most recent data from the military.
The Czechs are not alone. Eastern European countries are struggling to recruit new soldiers and retain experienced ones in a region where Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia share a border with Ukraine.
“We can’t do anything without people. If we modernize equipment and don’t have enough skilled and motivated people, it will be wasted money,” Rehka said.
PROBLEM ON A EUROPEAN SCALE
NATO’s Western European members face similar challenges. In July, Reuters reported that NATO would need an additional 35 to 50 brigades to fully implement its new plans to defend against any Russian attack on alliance territory.
But the problem is particularly acute for Eastern European countries that spent four decades under Soviet rule and have long warned of the threat of a more assertive Russia under Soviet influence. President Vladimir Putin.
“We also consider that the probability of Russian aggression against us is not impossible… within a few years,” former Czech deputy defense minister Tomas Kopecny, who was Prague’s envoy for Ukraine’s reconstruction, told Reuters.
“So in the event of a Russian attack, we need to know that we can count on a certain number of soldiers and capabilities.”
Governments have turned to digital marketing campaigns, increased enlistment bonuses and considered options such as a Czech Defense Ministry decree, effective September 1, lowering medical requirements for career soldiers, reservists and new recruits.
But with unemployment rates low across Eastern Europe, a major challenge is convincing young people to sign up for lower wages than they can earn in the private sector.
“We have challenges. They are related to the fact that the labour market is very competitive here,” Major General Karol Dymanowski, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, told Reuters.
Need for a new generation of soldiers
In Poland, government and military officials say they have met their recruiting targets and plan to increase recruitment limits, but critics question whether the goal of building an army of 300,000 soldiers is realistic.
Eastern Europe’s largest country is also looking to increase its defense spending to nearly 5% of GDP and recently launched a recruitment campaign called “Holiday with the Army,” which offers basic military training to citizens aged 18 to 35 over 28 days.
But Ministry of Defence data shows that while the number of recruits increased in the latest available figures, a record 9,000 professional soldiers left the service in 2023.
According to Dymanowski, this is a “natural process,” but Colonel Bogdan Sowa, head of the Polish General Staff’s Organization and Recruitment Directorate, explains that a considerable number of servicemen leave the army just a few years after entering service. “We are trying to offer them more attractive offers, creating new financial incentives,” Sowa said.
The Hungarian army – which has not released updated recruitment figures – has launched a media campaign using billboards, advertisements and a military-themed TV series to be broadcast by the end of 2024 to find new soldiers.
In Romania, the government launched a recruitment drive after recent data from the Defense Ministry showed that 43% of officer positions were vacant, as well as 23% of positions for soldiers and other professional ranks.
Romania has four Patriot missile defense batteries, but only two are operational, while the government has purchased a number of F-16 fighter jets, but lacks pilots with sufficient training to fly them.
“We need to look at what laws need to be changed, not only in Romania but in other countries, to encourage these people (serving soldiers) to stay,” a defence source told Reuters.
Romania and other countries are pinning their hopes on a new generation of soldiers like John Dunka, a Czech high school student who is attending the Army’s summer camp near Prague and plans to enlist after graduation.
“Wearing this uniform is a sense of pride,” Dunka said, holding an unloaded Bren 2 battle rifle during a break from his military exercises. “With everything that’s been going on in the world, I’m happy to be able to participate in a camp like this.”
(Additional reporting by Barbara Erling in Warsaw, Boldizsar Gyori in Budapest and Luiza Ilie in Bucharest; editing by Mark Heinrich)
