On Wednesday, November 20, applications for the July 2025 recruitment of the National Defense Service closed, for which 782 Latvian citizens voluntarily applied.
"Considering that 830 young people are planned to be conscripted into the national defense service next summer, a random selection will be organized on November 26," said a statement from the Ministry of Defense.
However, even the volunteers are not guaranteed a place as application forms must be checked in order to evaluate compliance with the criteria established by the Law of the National Defense Service. If no initial obstacles are found, a health check will be carried out, which could also result in a negative decision.
Previous recruitment rounds have found around 30%-40% of applicants to be unfit for military service, and earlier this year there was a fairly large number of no-shows for mandatory medical inspections among conscripts. The administrative penalty for not appearing for a health check-up at the time specified in the summons can range from a warning to a fine of up to 350 euros – more than the 300 euros a conscript can expect to be paid per month.
The next random selection will be organized on Tuesday, November 26, at the Ministry of Defense. You can see how it has worked before in this previous story.
In theory, summonses to military service are sent to an official state-backed electronic e-mail address, but as few people use such e-addresses in reality, summonses can also be sent as a traditional registered letter.
The recruitment intake of July 2025 will be carried out for 11 months in the Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Land Forces at the "Ādaži" military base, in the Air Force at the "Lielvārde" military base, in the 2nd Vidzeme Brigade of the National Guard in Alūksne and in the 3rd Latgale Brigade of the National Guard in Lūznava, Rēzekne district.
As previously reported, there are various incentives in place to encourage volunteering over being conscripted, not least of which is that volunteers are paid twice as much.
According to the rules, persons who have serious religious or moral objections to performing military service do have an option to perform a civil equivalent.
Latvia reintroduced military service for males aged 18-27 on a voluntary basis last year and from January 1, 2024, military service has been designated as mandatory. Latvia did previously have mandatory military service until January 2007, when it switched to a fully professional military service, but reintroduced mandatory service in a bid to boost the size of its armed forces. Women can also undertake national service, but on a voluntary basis only.
Full details about mandatory military service in Latvia can be found here.
