Conscripts must be trained to become high-quality soldiers, rather than placing emphasis on how an individual would learn the national language and integrate into society, Karus went on. He noted the conscript and the infantry soldier more widely remain the mainstay of defense even with all the new military technology which has emerged in recent years.

The Riigikogu last month adopted a bill amending the Defence Forces Service Act which requires conscripts speak Estonian to at least B1 level in the Common European Framework.

There are indeed many young people, conscripts among them, who lack sufficient language skills. While many do improve their Estonian language skills during their service, this is not an objective should be aimed at.

"This has had a kind of positive side effect, but it is not the task of the Defense Forces," Karus said, speaking to "Esimene stuudio."

"It is simply what happens when you train teams together. We have a limited amount of time in which we can train conscripts, especially now that they go on combat duty for six months. We do not have time to deal with language training, because essentially every second, minute and day is accounted for in order to properly train that soldier within six months. They must know how to act in a squad and after that serve on combat duty as part of a larger unit. We do not have that time in which we could provide them with language instruction. The purpose of conscription is to prepare citizens to defend the state militarily. We have done this [language training] because we have been forced to, but we can no longer afford it, because the training system and everything else is changing," Karus continued.

Karus noted Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark do not have to deal with language instruction, as the assumption is that all citizens speak the state language, regardless of what their origins might have been.

The new requirement for recruits having a minimum of B1-level Estonian has its opponents, with social cohesion cited as one reason. Again, Karus said integration is not a task for the armed forces, even as it can occur as a side effect of service.

"It is a side effect of something else. The Defense Forces teach many very cool things, and of course that provides the confidence in coping in society, with cohesion and understanding, but it is a side effect. It is not why we have a Defence Forces and why we prepare citizens," Karus said.

"Esimene stuudio" also touched on the issue of a lag between new weapons systems being procured and being fully battle-ready.

Under the current system, new tech is often only operationally ready for only one and a half to two months per year.

"So why did we buy them? We want some of them to be capable of responding immediately to different threats. This would also be a very clear message to our adversary that we are ready to respond immediately if they try something, not just an infantryman in a trench, but much larger calibers will also come down on them," he said.

Nevertheless, the infantry soldier, including the conscript, remains the bread and butter of defense. "Everyone talks about how powerful drones are, how impressive deep fire is; air assets and all these things are very good, but in the end, who is it that actually defends this land? Wherever the feet of an Estonian soldier are on the ground, that ground belongs to Estonia, and for anyone to take it away, they would have to remove that Estonian soldier there. Ultimately we come back to that simple infantryman," he added.

Even with the many new lessons drawn from the war in Ukraine, along with changes to conscription in Estonia, the issues facing the country are much the same as they were a century ago, early on in Estonia's independence.

"There is really nothing very new under the sun here. Two years ago, I had historians at the Defense Academy write an article about the 1928 military reforms. [general and statesmen Johan] Laidoners, [Nikolai] Reeks, [Jaan] Põders, (both officers in the first republic – ed.) and [prime minister Jaan] Tõnissons and others faced exactly the same problems – limited human resources, limited means, and what to do with them in order to achieve the best viable defense. The current threat environment created by Russia is the reason behind everything. That is what actually forces us to look at the situation differently. [Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation] Sergei Shoigu's reforms, which state that units are being reorganized, brigades becoming divisions – all of this leads to a situation where at some point there will be such a large concentration of forces behind our borders that Russia will no longer depend on whether it needs to bring anything in from deep inside its territory. In other words, it will be capable of very quickly conducting a small operation here with the units already stationed nearby. This is the reason why we have to look at how we respond to this. Intelligence and early warnings are actually changing, and at every moment. We need a force which is capable of absorbing that first sledgehammer blow, and we have one resource that we have so far not used in the EDF: Our conscripts. These are all smart, enterprising, initiative-driven young people who we must increasingly begin to use in order to maintain our everyday combat readiness," Karus concluded.

As well as imposing the language requirement, though this has been queried by the head of state, Estonia plans to up its period of mandatory military service will to 12 months for all conscripts from 2027, under new changes put forward by the government. Currently the period is eight months or 11 months depending on the unit and specialty. Conscripts are retained on EDF reservist lists and liable for annual service. Exemptions to conscription include academic study, health issues and issues of conscience.

The infantry mainstay of the EDF's two divisions, north and south, is mechanized heavy infantry, while a territorial force combining the volunteer Defense League along with EDF reservists has taken on a light infantry role.

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