Russia is calling on 300,000 reservists to reinforce its troops at the front, but what if a military emergency suddenly arises in our country? How big is the group from which Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder (PS) can pick? What talents do the armed forces have on the reserve bench? And is a general mobilization – in which people who have not volunteered anyway are called up – possible in our country at all?
Those who sign up as a reservist in the army often seem to do so as an expression of a kind of masculinity. “The motivation most often heard is that they want to do something for their country,” it sounds.
Belgium has 2,539 trained and 3,248 untrained reserve soldiers, Defense informs our editors. Professional soldiers who left active service remain on the reserve list for ten years. They can only be called up in the event of a war or if a government deems the crisis big enough.
Vigilant Guardian
By the way, don’t imagine a lot of trained fighting machines with those trained reserve soldiers. These are mainly volunteers with specific competences, such as lawyers or translators. Thanks to a shortened basic training, they can be deployed alongside active soldiers, as happened for example with Vigilant Guardian (the operation in which soldiers were deployed for years to protect streets, airports, stations, embassies, nuclear sites and other ‘sensitive’ places; ed.).
The deployment of the reservists is completely voluntary. If the Ministry of Defense calls them on, the persons involved decide autonomously whether they will accept it.
“Not much sense”
A general mobilization in this context is completely out of the question. “That would make little sense,” says former colonel Roger Housen at VRT NWS. “At least 8 months of training is needed if anyone wants to learn how to work with the weapons systems our military currently uses. So it takes a very long time before people are really employable.”
There are three options for becoming a reservist: working full-time with the Ministry of Defense for one year, a shorter training course of at least five or seven days a year (depending on your degree) or following a military course as a student during your vacation.
Soldier, sailor or (non-commissioned) officer
If you are now gradually getting the hang of it, you can choose to become a soldier, sailor, non-commissioned officer or officer. The first two groups are the doers, they turn plans into reality and meticulously carry out well-defined assignments.
A petty officer can be compared to a foreman. He leads a group of 5 to 10 people, but is not afraid to roll up his sleeves as well.
The officer is like a manager in a company. He plans the assignments, collects as much information as possible and finally decides what needs to be done.
In Russia, the army command meanwhile claims that on the first day of the mobilization about 10,000 volunteers reported spontaneously. And that before they even received the official letter in the mail. The images below show how conscripts in Neryungri (a city in the south of the Russian autonomous republic of Yakutia; ed.) say goodbye to their families.
Also read: Could the street protest get Putin in trouble? Russia expert: “He is much stronger than most think” (+)
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