Sustaining Military Expertise: The Estonian Defence Forces’ Struggle with Historical Legacy

The upcoming years pose a new challenge for the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF), one rooted in historical reasons. The EDF was initially established following Estonia's declaration of independence in 1918, but the Soviet occupation during World War II led to its disbandment in 1940. After regaining independence in 1991, Estonia faced the task of rebuilding its military from scratch. Several incentives were put in place to encourage people to work in high-responsibility or high-risk positions, including the EDF, one of them being the special pension system. While the official retirement age in Estonia is currently 63, special pensions often begin between the ages of 50 and 55. Now, many officers who began their careers in the 1990s, during Estonia's early years of regained independence, are reaching this age. The special pension policy is now starting to work against the system, as the possibility of receiving special pensions motivates individuals to retire relatively early, and the departure of a high number of highly experienced active servicemen represents a significant loss of expertise for the EDF. To address this issue, the pension reform introduced in 2020 raised the retirement age to 65 for new members of the EDF. Another significant argument for this decision was the forecast of a rapid increase in the number of special pension recipients, coupled with an aging population and a decreasing number of taxpayers. While this change is beneficial for retaining expertise and balancing costs for the state, it also presents challenges for the recruitment and retention of younger servicemen. In the presentation, we will further examine the motivators among those officers working in the EDF who are eligible for special pensions and those who are not, and draw attention to the possible future trends of attrition related to this issue within the EDF.