Revealed: ‘Volunteer army’ plan involving 20,000 veterans handed to defence chiefs

A bold new blueprint for a volunteer army reserve involving retired ex-service personnel to bolster the UK’s military in the event of war is being considered by defence chiefs, i can reveal.

Senior military figures have proposed recruiting an initial 20,000 former regular army and reservists to boost military numbers as the UK enters what the Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has called a “pre-war” period.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is being urged to take up the plans by senior Army Reserve officers as well as Lord Robertson, Secretary General of Nato and Defence Secretary under Tony Blair. An MoD source said the proposal is one of a range of options under consideration.

Referred to as a ‘Citizen Army’ in internal documents seen by i, it is one of several scenarios being discussed by the MoD to boost military personnel and has made its way up the military chain to the office of the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin.

The plan is the brainchild of a former Army Reserves Commander Lord De Mauley and existing reserve officers, and is a suggested solution to the public’s reluctance to back compulsory conscription in the event of a global conflict.

While the threat of all-out war may not be imminent, fears of conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine spilling over have escalated in recent weeks and military experts have been urging the UK Government to bolster its defence capabilities.

Defence Secretary has warned that the world has moved ‘from a post-war world to a pre-war world’ (Photo: Tolga Akmen/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

While Mr Shapps did not respond to requests for comment, a spokeswoman for the MoD told i: “Increasing recruitment and improving retention across the services is a top priority.”

The ultimate aim of the proposal would be an ambitious 200,000-strong force, which would be made up of willing recruits from the public.

Those who signed up would only be activated in the event of a serious threat to the UK’s national security.

The plans are based on a similar blueprint to the Home Service Force (HSF) of the 1980s and early 1990s.

The HSF was launched at the height of the Cold War in 1982 and comprised ex-regular, ex-territorial and ex-uniformed service personnel, but was disbanded in 1992 following the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

The documents propose the formation of 400 “cadres”- a complement of senior officers and sergeants providing a pool of experienced personnel responsible for training volunteer troops in the event of war – across the UK.

The proposal to create a 20,000-strong volunteer force and a 200,000-strong Citizen Army is with the UK’s Chief of Defence, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin (Photo: Andrew Milligan/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Each cadre would consist of 50 experienced personnel from senior to junior ranks who have recently retired who would volunteer for several training and refresher weekends each year as well as monthly evening updates.

According to the documents, should the army need to grow quickly the cadre structure would allow the rapid training of up to 200,000 volunteers to a ‘Mass Citizen Army’.

This mass volunteer force is designed to avoid the controversial strategy of reintroducing mandatory conscription in the unlikely event of the UK being attacked.

Earlier this year, Mr Shapps, said the world had moved “from a post-war world to a pre-war world”, and named Russia, China, North Korea and Iran “belligerent autocratic states” that, alongside their proxies such as the Houthis in Yemen, are currently threatening Britain and its Nato allies.

The use of cadres could avoid a repeat of issues in Ukraine that, following the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, saw Kyiv recruit around 500,000 troops but without the ability to train them.

These command units would be designed to have the experience to train battalions of hundreds of volunteer recruits, according to the proposal.

The primary role of the new military force would be to defend the UK in the event of war.

Volunteer troops would be trained up to provide combat power, join UK-based anti-aircraft and anti-drone artillery units, defend the coast and critical infrastructure as well as forming repair units, light mobile forces and supporting logistics groups, according to the documents.

Unlike the army reserves, the new volunteer-led force would not employ any recruits on either a full time or part time basis.

But if a major military threat to the UK did arise from a state such as Russia, the 200,000 volunteers would be mobilised into six weeks’ basic training with the cadres and all those who committed to the nation’s defence paid full time salaries according to rank in the event they were called up to active duty.

One person close to the plans suggested the force would replicate the “hugely successful volunteer models” of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and disaster response group Team Rubicon.

The plan budgets for an annual spend of around £500 per recruit in training allowances for the initial 20,000 ex-forces members during peace time, meaning an initial annual budget of as little as £10m.

How a ‘cadre’ would be formed

The Citizen Army would supplement the British Army’s existing personnel (Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)

Each member of the 400, 50-strong, cadres would have a war time leadership role and a training specialism, such as weapons/ranges, fitness, signals, first aid, fieldcraft and role-specific tasks.

Across each cadre, these would need to cover the full range of training requirements of a unit.

Part of the reason for the exceptionally low cost is due to all 20,000 members of the cadres being trained personnel.

In addition to their primary tasks each cadre will also be able to provide watchkeepers and other leadership or specialist functions to assist with national resilience tasks, helping the Regular Army and Army Reserve to continue to focus on current tasks and training, especially where the Army Reserve is orientated towards more demanding roles that require increased knowledge and competency, such as tank crews and other complex systems where there is a challenger of what is known as “rapid skills fade”.

Each cadre would consist of:

1 x commanding officer (Lieutenant Colonel)

1 x second in command (Major)

1 x ops/training officer (Rank ranged Captain/ Major)

1 x adjutant (Captain)

1 x quartermaster (Rank ranged Captain/ Major)

1 x medical officer (Rank ranged Lieutenant/ Major)

1 x signals officer (Rank ranged Lieutenant/ Captain)

1 x intelligence officer (Rank ranged Lieutenant/ Captain)

1 x Regimental Sergeant Major  (Warrant Officer Class 1)

1 x Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant (Warrant Office Class 2)

4 x sub-unit commanders (Major)

4 x sub-unit seconds in command (Captain)

4 x Warrant Officer Class 2s

4 x Quarter Master Sergeants

12 x minor unit commanders (2nd Lieutenant/ Lieutenant)

12 x Sergeants

The Regular Army loses around 10,000 recruits or all ranks each year, while the Army Reserve loses around 3,000.

Around 78 per cent of this annual “outflow” are considered “good leavers”, meaning that over the past 25 years around 252,000 trained people have left the army.

Only 8 per cent of these people would be required to fill the 20,000 requirement for 400 cadres consisting of 50 personnel each.

If a serious threat to the UK’s national security did occur, the cadres would train and command 200,000 troops from the general public.

The plan assumes those aged 20 to 60 would be able to volunteer for service. There are 35 million people in this age group, meaning a mass Citizen Army would need to attract 0.6 per cent of this sector of society.

Army personnel who have previously suffered injuries in theatre would be able to return to the armed forces to offer their expertise and experience during training exercises and take up suitable roles should the UK ever have to go to war.

Last week, the Prime Minister pledged that the Conservative Party would raise the defence spending to 2.5 per cent of the value of the UK economy, adding £75bn to military spending by 2030.

The proposal for the new civilian army, which would be a third echelon of the Britsh Army after the full-time regular and the reserves, comes as Defence Secretary Grant Shapps retains his strategy of reducing Army numbers to 73,000 regulars by 2025, the lowest number of British troops since the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century.

An MoD source added that the government was “seriously considering” the proposal given that “the prospect of compulsory conscription does not appear feasible due to a lack of public support for such a move”.

Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey declined to comment on the proposals.

The MoD spokeswoman added: “The Armed Forces are committed to attracting, retaining and developing the best talent from the broadest diversity of experience, skills and background needed to maintain operational effectiveness.

“To address recruitment, a range of options are being actioned to increase the inflow into both Regular and Reserve Armed Forces recruitment pipelines.”

What was the Home Service Force

The Home Service Force (HSF) was a Home Guard type force established in the UK during the peak of the Cold War in the early 1980s.

The pilot of the new force began in September 1982 and consisted of four companies that were used to relieve the army of guarding key points.

The personnel consisted of 18- to 60-year-olds with a training obligation of four to five weekends each year.

Comprising ex-regular, ex-territorial and ex-uniformed service personnel, the results proved to be much better than anticipated.

Its success was due to the recruitment of ex-servicemen with a minimum of two years’ experience, which enabled units to come up to operational readiness very quickly.

In 1984, there were platoons – comprising approximately 30 soldiers – in 11 cities and the force grew to be 5,000-strong nationwide.

The pilot scheme was considered a resounding success and the new force came into being officially in 1985.

A crest was granted to the Home Service Force Association but, at the time, there was never a common cap badge or regimental/corps crest for the Home Service Force. Each officer and soldier wore the cap badge of their sponsoring regiment or battalion.

It was decided to disband the HSF in 1991. The last unit was disbanded in 1993 following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. While the proposal for a new volunteer force requires an initial 20,000 former army personnel, the method of recruitment is almost identical.