Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary. His government is changing the military-draft process to increase its readiness for war. Photo / Getty Images
Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary. His government is changing the military-draft process to increase its readiness for war. Photo / Getty Images
American men will be automatically registered for the military draft from their 18th birthday.
The rule change scraps the longstanding requirement for men aged between 18 and 25 to register themselves with the Selective Service System (SSS), the US government agency that maintains a database of men who could becalled up in a national emergency.
Instead, their details will be drawn automatically from federal data sources in a system set to be launched in December.
Under the new rule, men will be registered automatically within 30 days of turning 18.
Women remain ineligible for the draft, despite politicians’ repeated attempts in recent years to include them.
The United States’ demand for increased military readiness reflects a trend across the West, with Germany and France introducing new forms of national service in the past year.
Congress mandated the new automatic-registration rule as part of the 2026 National Defence Authorisation Act.
According to the SSS, the change is intended to cut costs and reduce bureaucracy, but it has emerged amid tensions over the country’s military commitments during the war with Iran.
Many have questioned whether the war, currently in a fragile two-week ceasefire, could eventually lead to a full military draft.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, stopped short of ruling out a draft in March, saying it was not part of the current plan but that US President Donald Trump “wisely keeps his options on the table”.
Reinstating the draft is not within the President’s power alone.
The government would need to pass legislation amending the Military Selective Service Act before any President could begin inducting personnel into the military.
A US armed forces recruiting station in Times Square, New York. Photo / Getty Images
Vietnam legacy
Military service in the US has been voluntary since 1973, when the draft was abolished after the Vietnam War.
President Jimmy Carter revived the SSS in 1980, allowing the registry to be activated in a national emergency.
It gave the President and the US government the power to call up personnel or assign conscientious objectors to alternative service.
The draft was introduced during the Civil War and reintroduced during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. It became a defining point of tension of the Vietnam War.
At the time, the draft fell disproportionately on men from the working class and ethnic minorities, as wealthier Americans were often able to obtain deferments through college enrolment, medical exemptions or political connections.
Trump himself received five deferments during the Vietnam era.
Four of those were student deferments obtained while he attended Fordham University and later the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania between 1964 and 1968.
His final deferment, granted in 1968, was medical, based on a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels.
Failure to appear in the SSS database is a criminal offence, carrying consequences including ineligibility for federal student aid, federal jobs and, for immigrants, the potential loss of citizenship.
The penalties can also include fines of up to $250,000 ($427,000) and up to five years in prison.
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