The Ministry of Defense (MOD) of Armenia proposes to discharge early the rank-and-file soldiers from compulsory military service after completing their training phase—average: 4.5 months—of the compulsory military service—and on the condition that the given serviceman pays 24 million drams (approx. $60 thousand) to the state budget.

The respective draft law on amendments and addenda to the Law on Military Service and the Status of Servicemen has been put up for public debate by the MOD on the website for the publicizing of draft legal acts.

This initiative of the MOD stems from a clause in a government program, according to which legislative grounds should be created for reducing the period of compulsory military service in Armenia

Also, MOD plans to introduce a new program, which will be called Defender of the Homeland. It implies the transition from mandatory military service for soldiers to contract military service, the term of which is planned for five years. Also, after the end of the signed respective contract, these servicemen will be given an honorarium of 5 million drams (approx. $12,500), which the given soldier or citizen can dispose of at his discretion—and without any mandatory conditions.