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The paper focuses on soldiers enrolled in permanent compulsory initial military service in Lithuania and analyses their service motivation and attitudes to threats to national security. The article identifies the motives for joining permanent compulsory initial military service and highlights the fact that young people’s choice of permanent compulsory initial military service is most often driven by individual motives. In order to compare the results, representative surveys were conducted in 2018 and 2023. The empirical data suggest that the perception of the main threat to national security identified by troops as an economic threat remained unchanged between 2018 and 2023. However, in 2023, soldiers grew somewhat more aware of the threat of military aggression. In 2018, volunteers differed significantly from conscript forces in their determination to engage in national defense. The expected determination to engage in national defense at a time of an increased military threat did not significantly increase in 2023 compared to 2018; moreover, the attitudes of volunteers and conscripts failed to converge. However, 2023 saw a significant increase in conscripts’ service motivation and an improvement in their assessment of the National Defence Volunteer Forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]