25 October (BNS)

The Defence Ministry is planning the largest reform of the Estonian Defence Forces since their re-establishment involving changes in support activities, logistics and armaments with the aim to enhance fighting capability, the daily Postimees says.

Discussions are under way at the ministry on how to achieve better results with the same amount of funding or number of soldiers. The defence forces currently have 3 900 personnel; around 1 100 of the 3 900 are civilians who are on the payroll of the Defence Forces but are not soldiers. The ministry is of the opinion that it is necessary to increase the number of soldiers mainly at the expense of headquarters and civilians. Defence Minister Mart Laar too has in recent months voiced the opinion that there are too many headquarters and staff serving in them.

An important change that is being planned is engaging the private sector. The first sign was given by a sentence in the national defence strategy adopted last December, which said that in order to focus on the development of military capabilities the Defence Forces will be freed from administrative and support activities not directly related to military defence.

The defence minister added that all proposed changes are still being analysed together with the defence forces in the framework of drafting a new ten-year development plan and decisions will be made in a year's time, Postimees says.