National defense will receive a significant funding increase in the coming years, allowing the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) to acquire new weapons and capabilities. Last week, Chief of the EDF Headquarters Vahur Karus said this means the EDF will need to attract roughly a thousand additional personnel over the next five years.

As a result, the EDF is placing an increasing emphasis on recruiting new active-duty service members.

The Estonian Military Academy, based in Tartu, is already significantly expanding admissions to its applied higher education program this year. While the academy accepted 93 cadets last year, this year's intake has increased to 150.

The largest growth is in the curriculum for military leadership in the Land Forces, where the number of slots has doubled.

The program aims to prepare junior officers to serve the EDF and the Estonian Defense League as platoon leaders during peacetime and as company or battery commanders in wartime. Cadets can specialize in infantry, armored infantry, indirect fire, logistics, engineering, communications or air defense.

As of this year, the rules governing how and when young people can enroll in the academy's applied higher education program have also changed. It is now possible for young people to begin studies at the academy immediately after completing the eight-week basic military training course during their conscription. The academy will also hold an additional admissions round in July for those who started conscription service this year.

In theory, this opens the possibility for some young people to use the academy as a way to avoid completing their conscription service altogether. Nele Rand, head of the academy's academic department, said that once someone has been accepted into the academy but later decides to drop out, current laws do not allow for them to be returned to conscription service.

"Once they have entered active service, we truly can't completely prevent someone from submitting a resignation," she said.

Rand added that the academy is aware of this risk. She explained that once a cadet candidate successfully passes the entrance exams, they are required to complete a two-week supplemental course called "Introduction to the Specialty." The candidate is only released from conscription and formally admitted to the academy after successfully completing this course.

"This course is definitely a rigorous process during which we thoroughly assess the cadet candidates," Rand said.

She explained that anyone who does not pass the supplemental course will resume their conscription service where they left off.

Tõnis Sõnum, head of the analysis and planning department at the Estonian Defense Resources Agency, noted that the new weapon systems being acquired by the EDF are more complex than those currently in use.

This means there is a need for more personnel with new skill sets — both those who will operate the weapons and those who will maintain them. According to Sõnum, the greatest need is for military leaders capable of effectively employing the new weapon systems on the battlefield.

"When it comes to the battlefield and how to effectively deploy a weapon system against an adversary, that's the leader's responsibility. It doesn't necessarily require the technical know-how to maintain the system. Military science can only be taught at the Estonian Military Academy," he said.

Sõnum added that both existing leaders and incoming young personnel must be trained to operate the new weapon systems.

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