National Audit Office: Combat readiness, staff, equipment of Estonian Defence Forces has improved

The National Audit Office wrote on Wednesday that significant development had occurred in the Ministry of Defence as well as the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) over the last four years. Progress had been made in the area of combat readiness of units, staff, and equipment.
Still, the ministry as well as the EDF needed to pay more attention to increasing participation in training exercises of reserve forces, and also to reducing the number of people whose compulsory military service is suspended.
According to the audit office’s Wednesday press release, their analysis confirms that the combat readiness of the EDF has been developed systematically in accordance with the objectives of the National Defence Development Plan 2013-2022. Unlike the plan that preceded it, the current one had been successful because its aims were realistic, and sufficient funding had been allocated to it.
Staff and equipment of the wartime structure of the EDF in the equipment classes that were part of the audit (weapons, ammunition, means of transport, IT and communication equipment, other special equipment) had improved in almost all units over the last five years, the public summary of the audit stated. Detailed results are secret and won’t be released before 2022.
Still room for improvement
A problematic point, according to the audit office, is compulsory military service, where the EDF had not been successful guaranteeing that a sufficient number of people pass compulsory military service and take part in reservist training.
The problem here was that conscripts were assigned to reserve units earlier than planned, primarily for health reasons, the audit office wrote. This was the reason why the number of reservists suitable in terms of their training and health was smaller than prescribed for wartime units. The share of conscripts assigned to reserve units early had increased over recent years, from 11.6 percent of all conscripts in 2011 to 19.4 percent in 2015. The number of participants in reservist training exercises was smaller than planned, but the situation had improved in the more recent years.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn