The European Union is racing to rearm, mobilising billions of euros to provide its 27 member states with the financial resources needed to respond to potential external threats.
Yet despite these ambitious spending targets, reinforced by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) upwardly revised defence commitments, industry insiders warn that Europe's armed forces face significant recruitment and retention challenges.
“At the end of the day we need to have enough people to deal with these investments,” said Emmanuel Jacob, president of the European Organisation of Military Associations and Trade Unions (EUROMIL).
Jacob added that the problem is not new, but what has changed, he said, is the growing urgency. The scale of the manpower required to support this unprecedented military expansion has also been outlined by the European Commissioner for Defence Andrius Kubilius in February.
“Imagine it's 2030 — that's the year intelligence services say Russia will be ready and willing to test NATO — and 100,000 Russian soldiers are building up at the EU border and NATO border,” he said in Vilnius, according to European intelligence assessments.
