George Robertson claims the Defense Ministry would not know where to find most of those eligible to serve in the event of an urgent need
The UK has effectively lost contact with tens of thousands of reservists who would be called up in a national emergency, George Robertson, a former NATO secretary general and a lead adviser for the Strategic Defense Review (SDR), has said.
Amid the broader Western militarization over a perceived Russian threat – claims repeatedly dismissed by Moscow as “nonsense” – the UK rolled out its new SDR last November, outlining a shift to “warfighting readiness” by 2035. The plan calls for raising defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, and, among other things, revitalizing the strategic reserve.
An armed forces bill is now being prepared to implement the reforms, including raising the recall age from 55 to 65 and expanding call-up criteria to cover “warlike operations,” not just direct attacks or emergencies.
However, speaking at a lecture in Salisbury this week, Robertson said that the government does not have valid contact or health data for most of its roughly 95,000 “high-readiness” reservists.
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