New Jægerkorps conscription opens door but leaves mobilisation gap

Denmark’s new conscription programme at the Jægerkorps special operations unit is a step forward for recruitment and military capacity, but the soldiers’ future after 11 months remains unclear, DR defence correspondent Mads Korsager Nielsen writes in an analysis.

After more than two decades, the Danish Defence is reopening an opportunity for its most motivated conscripts: serving at the Jægerkorps in Aalborg.

In the so-called patrol platoon, the conscripts will be introduced to part of the soldiering skills practised full-time and at elite level by professional Jægerkorps soldiers. Applicants are being assessed this week, will receive their results on Friday and begin at the Jægerkorps on Monday.

The conscripts will not automatically become elite soldiers or be allowed to wear the special operations force’s distinctive burgundy beret. Reaching that level requires candidates to complete challenges that are far more demanding than those awaiting the new conscripts during their 11 months of service.

The new programme is not a shortcut to becoming a Jægerkorps soldier. It is an option for people seeking demanding physical and psychological challenges, and a possible recruitment channel for the Defence as it works to increase the number of operational patrols in the Jægerkorps and the Frogman Corps.

It may also allow professional special operations soldiers to focus on more demanding tasks. The conscripts could, for example, hide in an area, monitor an enemy position or location, and report back to headquarters. That would free experienced soldiers for more forceful and difficult operations.

The recruits could also gain skills in Arctic operations while working alongside Defence specialists in that field. This could give the Defence Command’s Operations Staff another unit to deploy as it allocates its limited resources.

But the programme exposes a larger problem. Denmark appears to be building a mobilisation defence in which conscript soldiers are organised into units and can be called up again in a crisis or war. The ambition is to create a force of up to 180,000 soldiers, in a project costing 25 billion kroner.

That system still requires a political agreement. The agreement was close to being reached before the election was called and a new government was formed. Six months later, the first conscripts have already begun their service, while it remains uncertain what will happen to them when they return home in 11 months.

The Defence has begun creating the machinery to produce soldiers, but has not yet established the structure in which those trained soldiers can be stored and maintained for future use, according to the analysis.