An Analysis of the Operation and Maintenance Cost of the Military Service System Based on the Recruitment Mix Ratio of Volunteer Military System

An Analysis of the Operation and Maintenance Cost of the Military Service System Based on the Recruitment Mix Ratio of Volunteer Military System

This study emphasizes the salary increases for enlisted soldiers, leading to substantial inflation in operation and maintenance costs within the current conscription system. We conducted a comparative analysis and predicted the O&M costs of the mixed-recruitment system and the all-volunteer system as alternatives to address the shortage of military manpower. The conscription system would require an additional 4 trillion won due to the salary increase, while the all-volunteer system would require an additional 1 trillion won. We used the latest demographic data, the extent of soldiers’ salary increase, and the active duty determination rate to compare the O&M costs of the conscription systems before and after the salary increase. This analysis includes the case where the current system has transitioned into the mixed-recruitment system and all-volunteer system, considered the alternative military service system, to provide the base cost data for determining the possibility of transforming the military service system in the future and improving it in the transitional period.