Overview
- UK media reports say the Ministry of Defence will test a paid placement scheme initially open to about 150 young people, with an ambition to expand to more than 1,000 places a year depending on demand.
- Participants are not expected to deploy on active operations, and pay is reported to be in line with basic recruit salaries of roughly £26,000, though formal confirmation is pending.
- Proposed formats differ by service, with army entrants completing 13 weeks of basic training as part of a two‑year placement, a one‑year track in the Royal Navy, and RAF details still under consideration.
- Defence Secretary John Healey described the move as a new era for defence focused on opening opportunities for young people.
- The proposal aligns with a wider European shift toward national‑service models and follows UK plans to lift defence and security spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, alongside warnings from the Chief of the Defence Staff about intensifying cyber, espionage and sabotage threats linked to Russia.