Denmark is completely reorganizing its compulsory military service: The government of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also wants to conscript women from 2026 and at the same time almost triple the duration of military service from the current four to eleven months.
So far, only Norway and Sweden have compulsory military service for women; in Denmark, women have only been able to volunteer for the army. However, 4,700 Danish women took advantage of this option last year, making up 25 percent of all conscripts. https://militaeraktuell.at/bundesheer-tcn-und-noriker-vorgestellt/ The government now wants to “promote full equality between the sexes” and “make the country more capable of defending itself”, as Mette Frederiksen emphasized. This also includes increasing the army’s financial resources. The Scandinavian country wants to reach the spending target for all NATO members in the coming year and significantly increase its defense spending from the current 1.4 percent of gross domestic product. In future, 2.4 percent of gross domestic product is to be spent on defense. “We are not arming because we want war, we are arming to prevent it.” The Danish military union CS criticized the approach. The army currently lacks trainers as well as accommodation and equipment to adequately train, accommodate and equip the many conscripts, according to the criticism. Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, on the other hand, welcomed the decision: “A more robust conscription, which also takes gender equality into account, will help us to master the current challenges in security policy.”
