The threat from Russia could see Britain mobilise reservists as old as 65 within 12 months, but most would not be deployed to fight on the frontlines, military experts say.
The Government has announced new plans to boost the ranks of former armed forces personnel by tens of thousands by increasing the maximum age of members of the Strategic Reserve from 55 to 65.
Under new legislation, the scenario threshold for mobilisation would also be lowered from a “national danger, great emergency or attack in the UK” to “warlike preparations”.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former tank commander and army colonel, said being able to quickly mobilise tens of thousands of reservists were metrics that hopefully would deter adversaries and prevent a hybrid war with Russia from turning “hot”.
But he told The i Paper: “If there is no peace in Ukraine, and Russia starts to make some serious inroads into Ukraine, the potential for an Article Five incident creating direct conflict with Russia could happen in the next few months or next 12 months.”
Nato allies, including France and Germany, have already taken steps to boost their reserves in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The “peace dividend” after the Cold War had seen Britain rely solely on its regular army, said de Bretton-Gordon, but current threats meant its size of 72,000 “doesn’t cut the mustard”.
“This is a realisation that the Government has suddenly found they do have a golden goose, but that golden goose needs to be patted and fed, as it were, and it will deliver,” he added.
Reservist soldiers from 4th Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment take part in an urban exercise at Longmoor camp near Farnham (Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP)The use of older reservists would not necessarily lead to thousands of ex-infantry soldiers being sent to the front lines, but could free up regular troops, said De Bretton-Gordon.
Former military personnel in their 50s and 60s with specific skills, such as specialist engineers or bomb disposal experts, could also be just as effective as younger troops, he argued.
Critical personnel the armed forces could call on also include experts in cyber, medicine and communications.
Veteran pilots flying commercial jets could be brought back to man transport planes or military army helicopters, while ex-Intelligence Corps officers could perform an important role, added de Bretton-Gordon, a leading chemical weapons expert – and a commissioned reserve officer in the army’s Staff Corps.
“Not that I’m going to go and charge out of the trenches with a bayonet and stab the enemy,” he said.
“But the depth of experience that people like me have, I would say, is invaluable, and it’s bonkers not to use it.”
The Strategic Reserve has an estimated 95,000 members, 36,398 of whom are from its Regular Reserve, former service personnel with a legal obligation to train and be called out if needed, usually for six years after leaving the military.
The remaining Recall Reserve can be recalled for permanent service in a dire national crisis or emergency.
British soldiers train during a major exercise on NATO’s border with Russia in the north of Finland (Photo: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)In 2024, more than one in five troops training Ukrainian forces on Operation Interflex were reservists.
The MoD says its plan draws lessons from Ukraine’s use of reserves and ‘whole of society’ response to Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
But General Lord Dannatt, ex-head of the British Army, said the MoD reforms were “window dressing” which, while increasing numbers, would not boost military capability, adding it “makes no sense”.
“To bring people back between 60 and 65, you’re not going to have many frontline infantrymen capable of going into battle at that age,” he said
“If we want to be serious about increasing our military capability, we need to increase the size of the regular armed forces, put more money into the proper army reserve, and get a better handle on younger members of those who have served in the past in the way we did in the Cold War.”
However, a mechanism whereby ex-armed forces personnel were contacted every year so military chiefs knew where they were was lost at the end of the Cold War, he added.
“So the Army, Navy, Air Force don’t know where their ex-serving people who have left in the last five, 10, 15 years are,” Dannatt said.
Last year, another ex-head of the British Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, warned that a conflict with Russia by 2030 was a “realistic possibility”.
Dannatt said: “That’s the sort of timeframe where we need to have put more resources into defence so that our capability is a quantum better than it is currently.
“Not so that we could better fight and win a war, but we can deter one in the future.”
The reforms are expected to come into force from Spring 2027.
However, Matthew Savill, research director at the think tank Royal United Services Institute, believes having to mobilise 65-year-old reservists is a plan that is “a little way off”.
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“It is mostly intended for more extreme scenarios where the current reserves system can’t meet demand”, he said.
“But it’s prudent because they have to start thinking about proper resilience in times of war.
“This isn’t about sending people who are 60 off to fight in foxholes, it’s about retaining access to specialist skills and knowledge.”
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