Russlands nye styrkemål

In December 2022, Russia's Minister of Defence announced that Russia would increase the number of soldiers in the Armed Forces from 1 to 1.5 million by the end of 2026. This report outlines the planned changes and discusses Russia opportunities to increase the size of its armed forces in the short and medium term. Russia has a mixed manpower model. The new plans call for the mixed model to be continued. Conscription will be maintained while the number of contract soldiers are to increase from approximately 400,000 (2021) to 695,000 by 2026. Since 2012, Russia has reduced requirements and training for all groups of professional soldiers in order to fill the force structure. Given Russia’s struggle to recruit enough privates, specialists and officers over the past ten years, the new plans to increase the active force by more than 50 percent by 2026 seems unrealistic and Russia risk building a new paper army. Big losses in the ongoing war in Ukraine in combination with increased force ambitions suggests that quantitative needs will continue to outweigh qualitative ones in the upcoming years.