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Austria Personnel, Conscription, Training, and Reserves
Unavailable
Figure 13. Major Military Installations, Planned 1995
Source: Based on information from Jane's Defence
Weekly [London], 17, No. 4, January 25, 1992, 117-24.
Until 1971 Austrian males were obligated to serve nine months
in the armed forces, followed by four days of active service
every two years for training and inspection. In 1971 the period
of initial service was reduced to six months, followed by a total
of sixty days of refresher training in the reserves. In the early
1990s, about 45,000 conscripts completed their initial military
training every year, and 80,000 reservists participated in some
form of exercises each year.
Reducing the mobilization strength of the army to 120,000
under the New Army Structure plan is to be accomplished in part
by limiting initial training of recruits to six months, followed
by reducing the period allotted for refresher training from
twenty years to ten years. Each reservist is to receive training
over a twelve-day period every second year during his first ten
years of reserve duty, generally not extending beyond the time he
reaches his mid-thirties. The reduced need for conscripts
corresponds to a lower pool of young men because of a declining
birth rate. The existing availability of about 40,000 fit
trainees annually as of 1993 is expected to fall to barely 30,000
by the year 2000 and to 26,000 by 2015.
Conscripts can choose to serve seven months instead of six
and have a shorter reserve obligation. Some may serve their full
obligation of eight months at one time and have no reserve
obligations, but this may occur only at the army's discretion.
Under a 1974 law, conscientious objectors can be assigned work as
farm laborers, medical orderlies, or other occupations in lieu of
military service. Exemptions from service are liberally granted--
in 1992 about 12,000 persons were exempted, a great increase over
the 1991 total of 4,500. The increase occurred after a new law,
valid only for 1992 and 1993, no longer required young men to
present their objections to the military in a credible way.
Previously, that had not been the case. In 1990, for example, two
young men rejected by the alternate service commission on the
grounds that they did not present their beliefs in a credible
manner were sentenced to prison terms of three months and one
month, respectively.
Conscripts usually attain the rank of private first class by
the completion of initial training. Those with leadership
potential may serve a longer period to obtain noncommissioned
officer (NCO) status in the militia. Those volunteering for the
career service can, after three to four years, apply to attend
the NCO academy and later a senior NCO course to qualify as
warrant officers. Both regular and militia officer candidates
undergo a one-year program of basic training. After a further
three years, regular officer candidates attending the military
academy at Wiener Neustadt and militia officer candidates
undergoing periodic intensified refresher training qualify as
second lieutenants. The reserve obligation of conscripts
generally ends by the time they reach their mid-thirties; NCOs
and officers usually end their reserve status at a later age
depending on their rank and specialization. By the early 1990s,
some 1.3 million men had completed their initial service and
refresher training obligations and had no further active-duty
commitment.
The military personnel system is an integral part of a
comprehensive civil service system. The nine officer ranks from
officer candidate through general correspond to grades I through
IX of the civil service system. The highest grade, IX, may be
occupied by a section chief (undersecretary), a career
ambassador, or a three-star general. A grade VIII position may be
held by a departmental counselor, a career minister, or a
brigadier general. Salary levels are the same for both civil and
military personnel in the equivalent grades, although various
allowances may be added, such as flight pay or hazardous-duty
pay.
Promotion is not based solely on merit but on position
attained, level of education, and seniority. Officers with
advanced degrees (for which study at the National Defense Academy
qualifies) can expect to attain grade VIII before reaching the
retirement age of sixty to sixty-five. Those with a baccalaureate
degree can expect to reach grade VII (colonel), and those without
university training will retire as captains or majors. Career
NCOs form part of the same comprehensive personnel structure. It
is common for NCOs to transfer at some stage in their careers to
civilian status at the equivalent grade, either in the Ministry
for National Defense or in the police or prison services after
further training.
The system of promotion in the Austrian military, which
offers no incentive for early retirement, means that the military
is top-heavy with senior officers. The New Army Structure, which
is intended to result in many fewer active-duty and reserve
commands, compounds the difficulty. Personnel changes can be
implemented only gradually, as the surplus of officers shrinks by
attrition. As of 1991, the army had four officers of general
rank, fifty-nine at the rank of brigadier general (one star), 155
colonels, and 254 lieutenant colonels. The education of career
officers is conducted at the Maria Theresa Military Academy at
Wiener Neustadt, thirty kilometers south of Vienna, which was
founded in 1752. Young men who have completed their university
entrance requirements are eligible to compete for places. The
three-year course graduated 212 students in 1990. At the National
Defense Academy in Vienna, which has a curriculum comparable to
those of the National Defense University and the Army War College
in the United States, operational and troop commanders of fieldgrade rank study for three years in preparation for general staff
and command positions. The NCO school is located at Enns near
Linz. Troop schools provide continuous specialized courses for
officers and NCOs in artillery, air defense, armor, combat
engineering, communications, and the like.
Women have never been accepted for service in the Austrian
armed forces. In a public opinion survey in 1988, about 66
percent of those polled approved of opening the military to
voluntary service by women; only 9 percent favored obligatory
service. Although consideration had been given to opening certain
specialties to female volunteers, the question is apparently in
abeyance in an army already facing retrenchment.
According to data published by the United States Arms Control
and Disarmament Agency, Austria had 5.6 persons in uniform in
1991 per 1,000 population. Two other neutral countries of Europe,
Sweden and Switzerland, with populations comparable to that of
Austria, had 7.3 and 3.2 persons in the standing military,
respectively, per 1,000 population. However, the mobilization
strengths of both countries were far higher than that of Austria:
700,000 for Sweden, and 625,000 for Switzerland.
Data as of December 1993
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