It would make sense. He believes, as does much of the Israeli ruling class, that after three years in the army, most Hareidim will come out as normal Israelis. They might not make it all the way to hiloni, but at least they’ll be good dati leumi. From his perspective, it means they’ll have “won” by having become “real” Israelis. The demographic threat of Israel turning into a Jewish state, rather than a zionist one, would have been averted. Remember the problem isn’t that the army lack manpower, but that the growing hareidi population is threatening the character of the medinah.
He’s probably wrong. Traditionally, Jews are like iron. Fire turns them into steel. I would suggest a more likely scenario is we’ll end up with, for better or worse, an Islamic Palestine replacing Israel due both to the army being seriously weakened from within, and the Hareidi community switching from passive acceptance of zionism to active resistance.