New US military draft rules explained as automatic registration begins this year

Eligible young Americans in all 50 states will be automatically enrolled in the military draft by the end of this year, as major conflicts around the world threaten peace, cooperation and, most importantly, US economic interests.

The plans to automatically register all eligible young men for military conscription were unveiled last week, after the Selective Service System (SSS), the federal agency behind the draft, submitted the new rules to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

This submission confirmed the biggest changes to the US military draft since the last one ended more than 50 years ago, towards the end of the Vietnam War, where more than 17,000 young conscripts were killed in combat - accounting for almost one in three deaths, despite only making up 25 percent of troops.

But the new draft will work very differently from the previous one, which made all male citizens eligible from the age of 18 and made refusal a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

Protests erupted across America when young men were drafted to fight in Vietnam (Leif Skoogfors/Getty Images)

Congress passed changes to the SSS draft process with the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which was voted through in December of last year, and made it so that young men do not have to register for the draft.

Instead, a computer system at SSS will now identify young Americans who qualify for the draft and automatically register them for potential service.

Giving a deadline for when all of these young people will be put in a draft database, the agency said in a note on the rule change that 'SSS will implement the change by December 2026, resulting in a streamlined registration process and corresponding workforce realignment.'

This will affect all men aged 18 to 25, who are already expected by federal law to register with SSS within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Failure to register counts as a felony, so officials believe that automatic registration should streamline the system.

Punishment for refusing the modern draft are a $250,000 fine or up to five years in prison.

The death of 17,000 conscripts in the Vietnam War contributed to the war's unpopularity (Stuart Lutz/Gado/Getty Images)

When the changes were first floated in the National Defense Authorization Act, Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan argued that the change would streamline the system.

She said: “This will also allow us to rededicate resources — basically that means money — towards [readiness] and towards mobilization … rather than towards education and advertising campaigns driven to register people.”

While all male US citizens and men hoping to gain citizenship are required to register for the draft, despite multiple legislative attempts to widen the franchise to the other 50 percent of the population, women are not allowed to register for the SSS draft.

The only other groups that are exempted are disabled men who are housebound, though all others living with disability have to register. Other groups, such as students, can get deferments of duty until the end of their semester.

Should President Trump to reinstate the draft, the first people who will be forced into the US military will be 20 year olds, each of whom will be selected by a lottery system. Once this age group has been drafted, the same process begins for each progressive age group up to 25.

Once these cohorts have been exhausted, military planners would put 18 and 19 year olds into the lottery. But even once drafted, each individual would still be subject to a physical and mental evaluation before being approved for service.