British military veterans will take part in a drill next year simulating their mobilisation for war, as part of Government efforts to test national resilience amid growing fears the UK could be drawn into a wider conflict by 2030. The exercise will involve members of the Armed Forces' strategic reserve, a pool of roughly 95,000 former service personnel, and comes as concerns mount over the shrinking size of Britain's full-time military and recent security incidents involving Russia in Europe.

Armed Forces minister Louise Sandher-Jones announced the plans, explaining the drill will test the processes needed to call out, use and equip the strategic reserve. Britain currently has only around 71,000 full-time, fully trained troops, with the Army at its smallest size in over 200 years. The move follows criticism from Lord Robertson, author of the strategic defence review, who said in April that officials had lost track of veterans on the recall list, and comes alongside political pressure over defence spending, with Chancellor John Healey declining to commit to 3% of GDP on defence by 2030.