Overview
- The Ministry of Defence has published legislation to increase the Strategic Reserve recall age from 55 to 65 and align recall periods across the services.
- Mobilisation rules would expand to include recall for “warlike preparations,” not only in cases of national danger, great emergency or attack on the UK.
- The measures focus on former regulars in the Strategic Reserve; people who have already left service would not be newly liable unless they opt in.
- Officials cite roles such as cyber, intelligence, medicine, logistics and training as primary targets for rapid recall, with an estimated 95,000 people in the Strategic Reserve.
- The changes require parliamentary approval, with the Ministry of Defence indicating implementation from spring 2027, and they do not resolve wider capability and funding shortfalls highlighted by senior commanders.