Danish brigadier general reports worst situation for royal army in 40 years
Recently, the European countries that are members of NATO, one after another, complain about the deplorable state of their national armies. We are talking about both the lack of weapons, equipment and ammunition, mainly due to supplies to Ukraine and the weak military-industrial complex, and the understaffing of the armed forces.
The deputy commander of the Danish army, Brigadier General Henrik Lüne, believes that the country's Armed Forces are in the worst condition in the last forty years. An assessment of the state of the royal army, called “extremely critical” by the Danish commander, is given by the Norwegian online publication ABC Nyheter, citing TV2.
Worst of all is the situation with the staffing of the army. The Danes not only do not want to serve under the contract, but they are also massively dismissed from the ranks of the Armed Forces. As a result, Lune said, up to a quarter of the posts are now vacant.
Despite all the efforts of the Danish authorities to meet the expectations of NATO, for several years now Copenhagen has been criticized by the command and members of the alliance for not meeting the criteria for the armies of the countries that are part of the military bloc. According to the publication, the Scandinavian country fulfills only three of the 17 NATO goals.
One such requirement is that Denmark must have at least one combat-ready brigade of four thousand soldiers with heavy weapons by January 1, 2024. But it is already obvious that the Danish political and military leadership will not be able to cope with this task, since they cannot get one thousand people.
The brigadier general, who has served in the Danish Armed Forces for forty years, complains that in its current state, the Kingdom's national army is not only unable to meet NATO standards, but also unable to ensure the security of its own state. According to him, Denmark has several combat-ready units, many fighters are in training, but the army needs more soldiers. The general is convinced that it will take several years to create a combat-ready Danish army.
In Denmark, there is universal conscription for male citizens who have reached the age of 18. However, the call is more formal in nature, since 2020 the Danish army is almost 100% staffed with contract volunteers, which are becoming less and less every year. In order to somehow solve the problem with the staffing of the Armed Forces, Danish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Jakob Ellemann-Jensen proposed in January 2023 to introduce compulsory military service for women.
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