11-month military service will be brought forward to February 2026

Extended military service of 11 months will be brought forward six months and will come into effect in February, says the Minister of Defense.

The extended military service of 11 months will be brought forward to February 2026.

This is what Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen (V) says in a video speech in connection with Constitution Day.

Previously, the plan was that the expanded conscription would be introduced in August 2026.

It will thus be brought forward six months.

“The reality is that we must strive to defend our homeland, as the constitution says we must. We simply need to get more men and women ready to fight,” he says.

As part of the defense agreement, conscription will be extended from 4 months to 11 months. It has also been decided to extend conscription to include women from 2026.

With the expanded conscription, there will be up to 7,500 conscripts per year in the Danish Armed Forces and the Emergency Management Agency. With the current model, there are around 5,000 conscripts each year.

In the speech, the Minister of Defense also says that the government will make a decision next week to purchase the first systems for a ground-based air defense, which could be operational in 2026.

He also says that the government is in the process of drawing up a plan for the establishment of a so-called mobilization unit. The unit will consist of “many thousands of former conscripts” who can join the Armed Forces in the event of a crisis or war.

According to Troels Lund Poulsen, there is an urgent need for air defense, a new conscription and the building of the mobilization force.

This is due to a changed world order with war in Europe, a trade war and turbulence around the Commonwealth, it says.

“All of this requires that we rebuild Denmark’s defense quickly. It requires that we arm ourselves in Denmark and in the other European NATO countries with equal urgency. We can no longer take our freedom for granted,” says the Minister of Defense.

Troels Lund Poulsen is in Brussels on Thursday, where the defense ministers of NATO countries are meeting.

ritzau