For decades, NATO’s reserve forces sat at the margins of defence planning, but Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has forced the alliance to confront a hard reality: its existing approach to reserves was not fit for purpose and didn't match the scale, speed and complexity of modern collective defence.
Now, allies are all taking steps to boost their reserve numbers – and they're hoping to attract talent from fields that are becoming increasingly important for victory on and off the battlefield, but which aren't necessarily competitive salary-wise, including cyber and IT.
