For a modern war in europe? Seems to me you need air superiority more than you need warm bodies with three weeks rifle training. And not much more the nordics can do for that considering they are allied with the US already and would allow them to use all ports and air strips.

The ukraine situation is a little different specifically because the US doesn’t want to destroy all russian air forces in a day like in desert storm and escalate things further.

Conscription in Sweden is 9-12 months, depending on role. In 2023 it was 6000 men and women. Much fewer than when I did my service in the 80s, about 35 000/year then. The length is similar though.

The European defense in general hasn’t switched to drone based defense at the same level that Ukraine seems to have done relatively successfully.

My point is that you need it for mental preparedness.

NATO does not have unlimited, or even especially deep, precision munition depth. There is absolutely a need for warm bodies manning anti-tank, artillery, and now FPV drone (10-20km range), positions.

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