15
An economic draft? Drive to get young Neets in the military divides opinion
(www.theguardian.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
15 points (100.0% liked)
United Kingdom
6715 readers
618 users here now
General community for news/discussion in the UK.
Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.
Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.
Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.
Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.
If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.
Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.
Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Yes, but the drones are expensive, whereas dead soldiers actually cost less money than live citizens.
Training and equipping soldiers of course costs nothing...
Many drones are a fraction of a soldiers annual salary, let alone the rest of the costs involved.
If the UK goes for the Russian approach of sending its undesirables and surplus population to the frontline with the cheapest possible equipment, essentially as ammunition, it could cost little. Though that only works if you have a frontline to throw them at.
Swim lads, we are invading France!
Drones can be cheaper than live soldiers.
A british private - in year 1.
£26,500 salary.
£47,500 training/kit/accommodation/food
£fuck knows in national insurance and pension contributions.
That number increases each year as their salary does.
Unmanned drone costs -
£5000 for loitering munitions
£500 for consumer drones with grenades attached etc
Right. But when the stakes are "get killed" the interest in expert opinion goes way up, and experts aren't betting their lives that today's AI can outwit humans when it matters.
In my (european) country there is a mandated draft. You get paid 5 euros a month, the only personal gear you get is the outfit, boots, winter coat with some underwear and a bedbug-pillaged blanket and pillow that most dare not use.
Why am I mentioning this? Because there's nothing stopping the UK or other nations from establishing similar draft conditions given a good enough excuse in a war economy.
€5 per month? How are they supposed to eat even?
They are offered very basic food at the base they're stationed at, usually cooked by 1-2 of the other privates, so luck of the lot.
Word is that the reason you get multiple shots before basic is due to some of the meat being deep frozen for so long they kinda want you to be extra protected to be able to handle it.