Sweden's Reserve Officers Face Age Challenges for Defense Service

Many are too old, and a lot of them have not been in service for decades.

The average age is 55 years, and only every fifth is under 45 years. Very many have not been in service for 10, 20 years, says Jenny Harlin, secretary-general of the Association of Reserve Officers, to the radio.

Now the Swedish Armed Forces will map out who can be assigned to war service.

We should have looked at this earlier, states Lennart Ek at the Defence Staff, who is in charge of the work.

Reserve officers are people with civilian jobs but who are also employed by the Swedish Armed Forces and can be called in for exercise or sharp mission when needed.