Denmark’s Armed Forces are reopening a conscript patrol section at the Jægerkorpset special operations unit in Aalborg, more than two decades after the old one closed. The first group of conscripts begins training on Monday.
DR reports that the so-called patruljedeling is being restarted for the most motivated conscripts. Applicants are being measured and assessed this week in Aalborg. They receive their answer on Friday, and training begins in earnest on Monday, according to DR.
In the patrol section, conscripts will learn part of the soldiering craft that full-time jægersoldater practice at elite level. DR notes that they will not automatically become jægersoldater or earn the unit’s bordeaux beret. Reaching that point still requires far tougher selection than the coming 11 months of service.
DR describes the new service as a possible recruitment channel for the Armed Forces. It is also tied to a politically ordered task of increasing the number of operational patrols in the special operations units Jægerkorpset and Frømandskorpset. The original patrol section was closed in 2004, when Danish politicians shortened conscription.
According to DR, the conscripts can be used for tasks that previously occupied fully trained special operations soldiers. That includes concealment, observing an enemy area or point, and reporting back to headquarters. The stated philosophy is to free professional soldiers for more demanding missions and increase combat power immediately.
Greenland and Arctic tasks
DR reports that the Armed Forces lack soldiers across the organization, while there is an acute need for more military presence in Greenland. The broadcaster expects the conscripts in Aalborg to pick up skills in Arctic operations, since they will train alongside the Defence’s specialists in that field. The unit gives the Defence Command’s operations staff another piece to allocate.
DR places the move in a wider security context, describing Europe as left on its own after years of cuts to military capability. The broadcaster points to Russia, Iran, North Korea and China, and to the assessment that the United States will not automatically come to Europe’s aid.
The next question, per DR, is how to organize the combat power created when the conscripts are sent home in 11 months. The Danish answer appears to be a mobilization defense, where former conscripts are grouped into units and can be recalled during crisis or war. DR reports an ambition of up to 180,000 soldiers at a cost of 25 billion kroner.
That plan still lacks a political agreement on mobilization, according to DR. An agreement was close before the election was called and a new government was formed, which DR says was six months ago. In the meantime, the first conscripts have already started, and what happens to them afterward remains unresolved.
