White House: Russia is executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders - eviltoast
  • ours@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Mandatory service doesn’t exclude a professional military.

    It’s a hot topic now but politics aside, Israel famously has mandatory service for both men and women. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a core of professionals under contract.

    Switzerland also has mandatory service but they have a core of professionals. Officers at a certain level have to be professionals and fighter pilots can’t just train a few weeks a year.

    Shooting a gun is easy but keeping a large conscript army with a good level of marksmanship isn’t. Hence Switzerland has its conscripts regularly trained in shooting on top of their regular military training. Plus a whole culture of facilitating the sport of shooting with tiny villages having shooting ranges, many competitions, and shooting clubs.