Some veterans will be mobilized as part of a major exercise next year testing Britain’s resilience to war.
The government exercise will challenge the Ministry of Defense (MoD) “on a scale we haven’t seen in a very long time” over its response in the event of conflict, Armed Forces Secretary Louise Sandher-Jones has said.
The exercise will involve an as-yet unspecified number of members of the British Armed Forces Strategic Reserve, which has an estimated 95,000 retired regular and reserve officers.
It is part of the MoD’s plan to take a “real step” to make greater use of the strategic reserve following warnings of a workforce retention crisis.
Sandher-Jones is herself a member of the Strategic Reserve, having previously served in the British Army as an intelligence officer before becoming a Member of Parliament.
“Of course, when I left the army and found out I was in the strategic reserve, I just put it aside and never thought about it again,” she told the House of Lords National Resilience Committee on Monday.
“We’re definitely not in that space anymore – the strategic reserve is a real commitment for those in it and it will be conducted as part of our exercise program next year.”
She said the exercise in 2027 would “recruit, employ and equip” for large-scale mobilization of retired military personnel if ever needed.
It comes after the Chief of the Defense Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, warned in January that there was no effective system for using them.
Earlier this year, ministers raised the age limit for the Strategic Reserve, which includes the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force, from 55 to 65 and lowered the threshold for their conscription.