War on the pandemic: European armed forces and the impact of COVID-19 deployments on military readiness

Marcel Berni and Pierre-Louis Gonin

Defense & Security Analysis, 2025, vol. 41, issue 1, 81-104

Abstract: Examining the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on armed forces development, this article compares and contrasts the employment of six European armed forces in their efforts to provide emergency assistance to their respective governments between the first wave of COVID-19 infections from February 2020 and the fifth wave during the winter of 2021-2022. We present a comparative analysis and classification of the tasks undertaken by French, Austrian, Italian, British, German, and Swiss soldiers in health, logistics, and security. We find that a pandemic did not figure prominently in codified security policy and military doctrine before 2020. Additionally, we illustrate that the armed forces were used as a flexible go-to resource while containing COVID-19. Their employment meant a decrease in operational readiness leading to a withdrawal of soldiers in ongoing operations as well as the cancellation of exercises.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/14751798.2024.2390722

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