The Czech Army has already met nearly two-thirds of this year’s recruitment target after the first quarter, said Defence Minister Jaromir Zuna (SPD) in a discussion programme on TV Nova broadcast on Saturday.
The army aims to recruit 2,250 new soldiers this year. It had reached approximately half of that target two weeks ago, and has now reached 65.5%, said Zuna.
Each new recruit must complete a six-week basic training course at the training facility in Vyskov, South Moravia.
The target for last year was 2,100 new recruits. In the first eleven months of 2025, the army managed to recruit 2,390 new professional soldiers.
According to ministry data, the Defence Ministry had 28,285 career soldiers at the beginning of last year, including members of military intelligence and the military police. There were roughly 24,000 soldiers in the army.
The military hopes to have 30,000 professional soldiers and 10,000 active reservists by 2030.
Zuna said the ministry also hoped to improve living conditions and services for these soldiers. “We have a CZK 3.1 billion programme in place for the construction of service apartments and the modernisation of barracks at key military bases. We have also increased capacity for training active reserves and for voluntary exercises,” he added.
The minister defended the government’s defence budget, which has met with severe criticism from the opposition. According to Zuna, this year’s defence budget is heavily focused on investment, with CZK 56.2 billion allocated for investments.
“It cannot be said that the 2026 budget is lower than in previous years,” said Zuna. “On the contrary, in nominal terms, it is CZK 400 million higher, and total expenditures, if other budget chapters are factored in, are actually significantly higher than in previous years.”
Regarding the Czech Republic’s NATO commitment to allocate a given percentage of gross domestic product to defence, Zuna said that defence policy “is not a race for percentages”. He said it is more important to build up defence capabilities.
Former deputy prime minister Ivan Bartos (Pirates) said in the same discussion that NATO will not necessarily recognise some of the additional expenditures as defence spending, so if the Czech government sets defence spending at exactly 2% of GDP, it may end up falling below that threshold and failing to comply with the law.
