For their 75 days of military training, recruits will have six hours of morning training and two hours of afternoon training every day. On Saturdays, training will last only six hours, while Sundays will be reserved for free time, sports, and other activities, reveals Miodrag Jevtić, a retired colonel.
As he stated, future recruits have no reason to be afraid because “our country is in a peacetime state,” meaning “it is not wartime like in some other areas.”
“This is just one training course, a series of lessons, which lasts only 75 days. Look, I would recommend and advise parents to send their children to the army with great pleasure and complete confidence, so they can complete that military service – not just finish it, but learn many new things. In my opinion, the optimal time for them to learn everything they need is six months,” Jevtić stated on K1 TV.
First month: Military or infantry training
When it comes to the 75-day military service, Jevtić explained what the recruits will be doing month by month.
“Those young men of ours, and the women who come forward voluntarily, all of them will have six hours of morning training and two hours in the afternoon every day. On Saturdays, there will be only six hours of training, without the two hours in the afternoon. Sunday will be for free sports and other activities. For the first month, these young men and women will have what we would call military or infantry training. This means they will learn to use their personal weapons, to strip them down, reassemble them, and maintain them within the scope of basic maintenance, to clean them, and service them. Furthermore, they will have basic infantry training and first aid, so they can assist someone, protect them, and protect themselves. Movement on the battlefield, setting up a necessary defensive stance. Protection against ionising or other radiation, or eventually against chemical weapons. Using protective gear and military equipment in general. That is the first month,” Jevtić reveals.
Second month: Working in teams
As he says, during the second month they will also work, but in teams.
“They will perform certain team actions and will receive a military occupational speciality. Whoever is an infantryman, from the infantry branch, will do infantry tasks; those in armoured-mechanised units will deal with tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, and similar. Engineers, it is well known what engineering does – mines, counter-mine measures and so on, and air defence. That will last for another month,” Jevtić described.
Last 15 days in bivouacs and on training grounds
He also revealed what the recruits will be doing during the final 15 days of their military service.
“Finally, for the last 15 days, they will be out in nature, in certain bivouacs and on training grounds, where they will both sleep and live, to try and implement what they have done in teams and exercises. That will make up the 75 days. After that, they will, of course, enter the military register. They return home, and then they will have occasional exercises. They will significantly rejuvenate our reserve forces, which are currently old. We haven’t rejuvenated those reserve forces for quite a few years. That is what military service will look like,” Jevtić explains.
However, he adds that the recruits will not have the opportunity to be “fully trained for military occupational specialities because the timeframe is short.”
“So, when they finish their military service, they will continue their further training in that sense through specific exercises,” Jevtić states.
Recruits will not serve military service in their hometowns
As he said, the Serbian Armed Forces have a total of 54 barracks and nine training centres, and recruits will serve their military service in towns where they do not live.
“We also have land forces brigades – the first, second, third, and fourth. Recruits will certainly be in centres at an instructor level. We have a training centre in Sombor, then in Valjevo, they will be in Priboj, they will be in Loznica, we also have new facilities there,” Jevtić said.
“There are certain places in the barracks where mobile phones are not used”
He added that recruits will not be cut off from modern technology.
“They will have their mobile phones, which they will be able to use. But they won’t be able to use them during lessons, classes, and the like, or during practical, applied forms of training in the field. There are certain places in the barracks where mobile phones are not used. Neither officers nor recruits will use phones in some defined areas. But in other places, yes. Therefore, they will lead a completely orderly, normal life that is suited to a modern way of living,” Jevtić described.
“They will have the option to choose from several types of food”
He also touched upon the catering in the barracks.
“The food will also be good. They will have the opportunity to choose from several types of food. They will stay in decent facilities. It won’t be the Hilton Hotel, it’s a barracks, and it comes with military discipline. There is a duty officer, but that is all acceptable for those young people who know where they have come to,” Jevtić states.
In Switzerland, military service lasts 142 days
He added that the “exceptionally good Swiss army has permanent military service” which lasts 142 days.
“After 142 days, when they finish, they take all their weapons, uniform, everything, home with them, and later they come to exercises with all that they have. That is to say, the curriculum and programme are designed so that they have no downtime. During all those months—they work for 21 weeks—they are working flat out,” Jevtić compares.
PE Teacher: In 75 days, we can only just prompt the body to develop
Miroslav Marković, a physical education teacher, also believes that six months is optimal for serving military service.
“From the aspect of physical fitness, in 75 days we can actually only just prompt the body to develop and improve its motor skills, meaning its functional abilities. The army will not run into problems regarding weapons training, but young men of varying physical abilities and physical predispositions will be arriving. So, while I haven’t seen the programme, I believe that in those short three months – two and a half months – there can only be a minimal shift in their physical fitness and physical training. As for socialisation, it is very important, and it will definitely happen; new friendships will be forged there, new knowledge, and new skills, but for actual physical fitness, something more is needed after all,” Marković assesses.
As he says, he also thinks that the army will shape the youth, but the youth will also shape the army.
“I think it will be a mutual process, but as far as the army is concerned, it will bring about their socialisation and accept what this modern youth carries with them. And it will give the youth what they currently lack, which is that socialising without mobile phones and other distractions. They will focus on each other,” Marković states.
(Blic, 09.07.2026)