Hear
The Ministry of Defense that leads Luis Petri works on a project to regulate role of reservists of the Armed Forces, that currently play a reduced and symbolic role. It’s about a approximate universe of 200,000 people who received some military instruction, including retirees, personnel who requested discharge, graduates of military high schools and former volunteer soldiers, among other former uniformed personnel who could be summoned in the event of an eventual armed conflict.
The idea aims to “unify the criteria” to call them, given that each force in fact has its own guidelines, he explained to THE NATION the Secretary of Strategies and Military Affairs, the retired lieutenant general Claudio Pasqualini, former head of the Army between 2018 and 2020 and today virtual vice minister of Defense.
To estimate the number of reservist officers, it is necessary to take into account the graduates of the three forces high schools –about 500 per year-, retired military personnel, those who went on leave and those who once took courses for reserve officers. Non-commissioned officers include those who retire, those who request discharge, and former soldiers who did military service.
The figure of reservists is contemplated in law 19,101, sanctioned more than 50 years ago to regulate the conditions of military personnel. And the intention of Petri’s team is for the project to reach Congress before the end of the year.
Lieutenant General Pasqualini led the Army during the government of Mauricio Macri and in the management of Oscar Aguad At the head of the Ministry of Defense a project had been promoted aimed at strengthen the reserve of the Armed Forces, although in the end no progress was made.
The possible convocation of reservists, designed in the event of possible armed conflicts, would allow the Armed Forces to be incorporated into professionals and technicians from different disciplines in the civilian field who receive military training. For example, in the engineering branch and in the area of cyber defense, experts estimate. Traditionally they are added to active service when circumstances require it.
Most of the reservists come from the Army. The Air Force has some who participate in observation posts that work in a complementary way with radars for detection of aircraft and irregular flights.
This is a figure that is highly developed in other countries, such as United States and Israel, in addition to Chile and Colombia, to cite closer models. In the United States, for example, they acquire training in combat operations, engineering and scientific research, as well as in information technology, cybersecurity and health care, among other specialties.
Pasqualini referred to the project of reservation law in a dissertation he offered at the Rotary Club of Buenos Aires, in which he also anticipated another initiative to advance the territorial mobilization and organization.
This is related to the use of all national potential in the event of an eventual armed conflict and will serve to “regulate requisitions of civil vehicles or requests for reconversion of industries for military logistics,” explained the vice minister.
Since the inauguration of the president Javier Milei, Petri’s management has been working on repeal of the regulatory decree of the national defense law, to provide a legal framework for the actions of the Armed Forces against attacks of external origin, not necessarily originating from state armies, as limited by the regulations imposed in 2006 by the then minister Nilda Garré.
This restriction, which is not contemplated in the defense law, had been repealed by Macri, but it was reintroduced by the government of Alberto Fernandez. In that sense, the reform would enable the military to intervene in operations to combat drug trafficking and organized crime.
Petri’s management evaluates the adoption of other measures to promote patriotic spirit, especially in the training of students in schools, through flag swearing ceremonies in military units, distribution of cockades and performance of Armed Forces bands at public events.
To this will be added a regulation of the National Defense Fund (Fondef), created in the ministerial management of Agustín Rossi with the purpose of guaranteeing the equipment of the Armed Forces. This novelty would arrive after the purchase of the F-16 fighter aircraft for the Air Force, which will be incorporated within a period of four years, and at a time when alternatives are being studied for the purchase of armored vehicles that will be assigned to the Army and the announced acquisition or construction of submarines for the Navy.
