Estonia sharply cuts conscript intake in 2026, but promised advanced training hasn't started yet

The Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) have designated 2026 a so-called gap year, cutting the number of conscripts taken into service from the usual roughly 4,000 a year down to just 1,200, many of whom intend to build a career in the military. The reduction was meant to free up active-duty personnel to undergo more extensive further training and professional development.

However, the Defense Forces say this intensive training period is only now getting underway, since all conscripts who began service last year have just been transferred to the reserve. Changes to the basic soldiers' training course have been prepared, and instructors have been trained to roll out the updated curriculum and methods across units, with instructor training standards also brought into line.

Three training priorities

Training will focus on three main areas: strengthening soldiers' basic skills, counter-drone training, and firearms training. Basic skills involve protecting personnel, weapons and equipment from detection and enemy fire, while drone and firearms training draw on the latest expertise, which keeps evolving amid the war in Ukraine.

Although overall conscript numbers are down more than threefold, the cut has not been applied evenly — some units still need their usual number of conscripts to function, so this year looks much the same for them as any other.

Bigger intake planned for 2027

The EDF hopes to take in 4,100 conscripts in 2027, more than in recent years. Each year the Defense Resources Agency (KRA) assesses the health of nearly 10,000 young people aged 18 to 27, and is now focusing intensively on those who have not yet entered service. KRA Marketing and Communications Director Daisi Želizko-Kask said it is not yet clear how many of this year's non-conscripted young people will receive a deferment, as that depends on how many enroll in further studies after school admissions conclude; those without grounds for deferment will be called up in 2027.

KRA believes calling up around 4,000 conscripts a year will remain feasible until 2040, when the effects of an earlier decline in the birth rate of boys will start to be felt. The agency says the gap year has not reduced the number of active-duty personnel.