The United Kingdom is moving to expand its military by raising the maximum age at which service members can be conscripted to 65, as the head of the British Army warns that the public will soon be asked to make “sacrifices” for national defence.
The changes, introduced through the Armed Forces Bill, will increase the recall age for the Strategic Reserve—composed of former Regular and Volunteer Reserve personnel—from 55 to 65. The legislation also lowers the threshold for recall, allowing reservists to be called up for “warlike preparations” rather than only in cases of “national danger, great emergency or attack on the UK”.
Army Chief’s Warning
The legislative changes come amid increasingly direct warnings from military leadership about the security environment.
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General Sir Roly Walker, Chief of the General Staff, told soldiers at Catterick Garrison that political leaders would soon begin a “frank conversation” with the British public about the risks facing the country.
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“You didn’t know this, but our nation is going to need you,” Walker said, according to British Forces Broadcasting Service footage. “There was a time that our nation didn’t want to think of a time when it would need its soldiers to fight in a war. But… there is extreme jeopardy in the world at the moment, and the business of soldiering is coming back into the nation’s psyche”.
Walker said citizens “have got to consent to sacrifices to prioritise defence and security”. He did not announce conscription or any immediate plans to mobilise civilians.
