Kazakhstan tables conscription reform after 14 soldiers die in drill

According to a 21 October report by the state news agency Kazinform, Deputy Security Council Secretary Aida Balayeva presented the draft. Under the new model, conscripts will spend their first 6 months at training centres and the second 6 months in units focused on combat training. The plan includes setting up an unmanned systems force, military adviser posts and a Military Ombudsman. At the same meeting Tokayev said half-measures would not deliver the desired result and called for a mobile, technological army as soon as possible.

The trigger was the naval exercise on 24 September. According to Kazakhstan Today, 17 soldiers were swept out to sea in Mangystau when the weather suddenly turned; 14 died and 3 were rescued. On 27 September Tokayev said the soldiers had not even been given life jackets and that the army was stuck in the last century. Defence Minister Dauren Kosanov was dismissed and replaced by Aidos Myrzakhmetov, and the Supreme Audit Chamber opened an audit of the ministry. Tokayev had asked for the plan within 10 days; the draft reached the council about 2 weeks after that deadline.

Neither of the 2 texts Kazinform published on 21 October gives the plan's budget or implementation timetable; these two items could not be verified. The first concrete test will be which call-up cycle the 6-month training stage starts from, and when the Ombudsman's office is set up.