US Selective Service System wants to wargame the draft - Selective Service System plans a computer simulation to test how it would carry out a national mobilization of American manpower

Selective Service System wants to wargame the draft Article | Archive​

By Michael Peck- Jul 24, 2026, 10:16 AM


Fearing that its new plans for the U.S. military draft pool won’t work, the Selective Service System wants to create a computer simulation to test scenarios for its national mobilization.

The “Readiness Simulation” project comes as the U.S. government is about to change its draft registration system.

Since 1940, men within a designated age range have been required to register with the Selective Service. But under a proposed rule, men aged 18 to 26 will be automatically registered starting Dec. 19, 2026. The Selective Service System will work off data contained in other federal databases.

Questions remain about how prepared the Selective Service System is to handle the change.

“SSS currently relies on manual analysis, legacy modeling approaches, outdated assumptions, and historical datasets that do not fully reflect modern demographics, communications channels, throughput constraints, or operational readiness conditions,” warned the agency in a Request for Quote for the Readiness Simulation tool.

The deadline for vendors to propose their simulation models is Aug. 14.

The computer simulation will explore multiple areas. These include evaluating staffing and resource requirements, comparing mobilization and police scenarios and assessing the operational impact of surge conditions. In addition, the system will “identify throughput risks, delays, and bottlenecks” and support executive planning and reporting obligations.

The goal is a simulation system that “models the full end-to-end SSS mobilization pipeline, supports configurable scenarios, and provides decision-support analytics necessary for leadership, planners, and operators.”

Scenarios will encompass draft registration, selection, notification, delivery and classification. They will also cover the Alternative Service Program, which includes various forms of community service as well as conscientious objectors.

Computer models will “represent MEPS [Military Entrance Processing Stations] throughput, no-shows, medical disqualification rates, claims processing, and ASP diversion,” according to the Request for Quote.

Contractors must be prepared to run the Readiness Simulation while “recognizing that legacy SSS draft data may be outdated or unreliable,” the agency said.

A draft registration system based on data compiled by — and accessed from — other federal agencies is likely to raise privacy concerns.

The computer simulation “shall operate within an SSS-designated cloud environment, use anonymized aggregate data, and support complete Government ownership and sustainment,” the agency said.

The simulation must also comply with multiple privacy regulations.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

Military failures are celebrated by opposition parties in the US. See the Republican reaction to the Afghanistan pullout

Who celebrated the Afghanistan pullout? Republicans talked about how much of a clusterfuck it was and how the Biden administration completely dicked the dog - there's nothing celebratory about that.

 

[Potion_Time]

Who celebrated the Afghanistan pullout?

Every Republican was on the news talking about it being a disgrace and attacking the Biden admin. It wasn't a black eye for the nation, it was a black eye for the Biden admin.

Now Democrats are doing the same thing to Trump under the Iran war. It's not a black eye for the nation, it's a black eye for the Trump admin. We are polarized to the point where we do not see unified federal institutions as representative of our nation and ourselves, but representative of the ruling party exclusively.

It is literally impossible to institute or enforce a draft under this level of polarization and alienation. Thus, it's a waste of time, manpower, and money. Rand Paul was right when he tried to pass a bill that would dissolve the Selective Service System. It's a system that exists entirely based on wishful thinking.

 

[Changed later]

Conscripts just plain suck ass as soldiers, anyone worth a damn and wants to sign up already will - the rest are gonna be doing the bare minimum and going to take any opportunity they can to get out of it. Conscripts in WW1 had notoriously bad aim because they didn't have it in them to pull the trigger on another person and would intentionally aim to miss if their lives weren't immediately imperiled.
The only way I see a draft working is to relieve the burden on administration, logistics, manufacturing and medicine - non-combatant roles only.

 

[Burd Turglar]

Oh man, the broccoli hair battalion will sweep through the middle east and save us all, one tiktok at a time.

 

[Snack Cracker]

Oh man, the broccoli hair battalion will sweep through the middle east and save us all, one tiktok at a time.

Get ready for IDF inspired TikTok’s if this happens.

With all this being said though, plane autists would be a huge asset in support roles like maintenance and repair without being in pilot roles.

 

[Dead Lion]

Drafts are a powerful, important tool for total warfare. Volunteers can make a good military, but if SHTF you want an efficient drafting system.

Draft is slavery. You get sent to die against your will while the sons of senators conveniently don't.

 

[TowinKarz]

It can simulate a draft, but in reality, few would report for service. Some would violently resist, and rightfully so.

So no, there is no realistic scenario where a draft will ever be instituted as there's no realistic scenario where a draft would be successful.

There's no realistic scenario where the draft is needed that doesn't coincide with WWIII and at that point? Society's gone and so is its means to enforce conscription either through legal courts, appeals to patriotism or social shaming.

The ability to get Big Macs whenever I want and the power coming on whenever I flip a light switch is my incentive to support my leadership and institutions. If it goes? So does any practical need or incentive to follow their orders.

If the bombs dropped? The last person I want to see is a member of the now-defunct government that couldn't stop it from happening or maybe actually pushed the button themselves.

The only shooting I'll be doing in such a case is of them, in the head, if they argue I owe them anything at that point.

Besides. You just don't need a million men to fight a war these days.

 

[Scale Smerch]

So no, there is no realistic scenario where a draft will ever be instituted as there's no realistic scenario where a draft would be successful.

More importantly no need for one as well. IIRC all military branches easily meet their annual quotas currently; it's not a Eurocuck or Bong/Leaf situation where their forces are so hollowed out with so few volunteers that they're forced to sabre rattle over inevitable conscription. It would take an existential crisis for any administration, Dem and Republican both, to go through with a draft in this day and age.

This report is like any wargame scenario, it's a procedural study that's released purely to play to a specific political angle.

 

[The Grognard]

More importantly no need for one as well. IIRC all military branches easily meet their annual quotas currently; it's not a Eurocuck or Bong/Leaf situation where their forces are so hollowed out with so few volunteers that they're forced to sabre rattle over inevitable conscription. It would take an existential crisis for any administration, Dem and Republican both, to go through with a draft in this day and age.

This report is like any wargame scenario, it's a procedural study that's released purely to play to a specific political angle.

IIRC the problem in the states is that while they can satisfy their current manpower needs, any surge would require a serious recruitment drive. And of course, one can always conduct drafts in a limited manner. They also operate at less than half the number of people compared to the amount of people who participated in Desert Storm alone.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

The draft is inhumane and 100% against it.

There’s men who are meant to be soldiers, men who can adapt to being soldiers, and men who cannot be soldiers.

Full Metal Jacket comes to mind when talking about men who cannot be soldiers.

Most soldiers aren't marines though, a ton of soldiers are desk jockies, engineers or in charge of equipment. At most they will need to know how to shoot and aim for emergency situations, but short of fighting aliens or just as unlikely circumstances they are completely safe.

 

[The Grognard]

Most soldiers aren't marines though, a ton of soldiers are desk jockies, engineers or in charge of equipment. At most they will need to know how to shoot and aim for emergency situations, but short of fighting aliens or just as unlikely circumstances they are completely safe.

Also, if your conscripts can't shoot decently with a rifle, it just means your training methods are shit. Though, I do think they also should be taught the basics of digging trenches so the rear areas have some entrenchment when everyone's got some spare time.

 

[Potion_Time]

IIRC all military branches easily meet their annual quotas currently;

There is a continuing and ongoing recruitment crisis. Trump has solved some of it by increasing bonuses and benefits as well as those willing to volunteer generally being more conservative anyways, but there's little doubt the crisis will return once retention becomes too expensive or a Democrat wins in 2028.

There's a reason the pentagon want's to increase taxes by 5k per working adult in the US. It's because war has become much more expensive and unpopular and they can't maintain current forces and manpower without an even larger budget that must be paid for by somebody. And it's certainly not going to be the upper classes.

 

[Joshua Cohen Mohnstein]

Every time there's the inevitable posts about a draft when a military operation is occurring there's always posters online talking big about they'd shoot their officers or shit themselves to resist dying for Israel, only then it's found out that the poster isn't even American or is ineligible because they're too old, fat, or disabled. It's the rightwing equivalent to libs posting online about how they'd hide illegal immigrants in their homes from the Gestapo ICE or join an underground railroad to help trannies flee to Canada.

Short of an actual boots on the ground invasion of the North American continent or internal collapse with competing factions pressing people into service, I sincerely doubt there will ever be a military draft in the US ever again, much less one proportional to Selective Service during Vietnam which was 1.9 million (7%) of men drafted out of the ~27 million men eligible and 0.9% of the total US population. It's politically retarded and unnecessary for a state like the US as it is now to institute one, especially with the tropes of Vietnam and its own draft still within living memory.

 

[Maid Maple Ying]

There's no realistic scenario where the draft is needed that doesn't coincide with WWIII and at that point? Society's gone and so is its means to enforce conscription either through courts or shaming.

You just don't need a million men to fight a war these days.

Iran currently. Given 9month about due in October to December least sduty tostwich them out

 

[Potion_Time]

there's always posters online talking big about they'd shoot their officers or shit themselves to resist dying for Israel.

You won't have too. They won't be able to process and try the sheer quantity of people refusing to muster. Many states would refuse to enforce it or provide help to federal agents in bringing these people to court for proceedings.

The reality is that even in Vietnam, only .5 percent of draftees who refused to serve got a prison sentence. And all of them got pardoned under Carter. Nobody had open fire on an agent at their front door because there were no door to door goon squads going after no shows. You win by simply ignoring the summons.

 

[The Grognard]

Every time there's the inevitable posts about a draft when a military operation is occurring there's always posters online talking big about they'd shoot their officers or shit themselves to resist dying for Israel, only then it's found out that the poster isn't even American or is ineligible because they're too old, fat, or disabled. It's the rightwing equivalent to libs posting online about how they'd hide illegal immigrants in their homes from the Gestapo ICE or join an underground railroad to help trannies flee to Canada.

Short of an actual boots on the ground invasion of the North American continent or internal collapse with competing factions pressing people into service, I sincerely doubt there will ever be a military draft in the US ever again, much less one proportional to Selective Service during Vietnam which was 1.9 million (7%) of men drafted out of the ~27 million men eligible and 0.9% of the total US population. It's politically retarded and unnecessary for a state like the US as it is now to institute one, especially with the tropes of Vietnam and its own draft still within living memory.

If uncle sam expects to have enough people to compete with PRC or even conduct a ground offensive towards Iran, they really don't have any other options left. There are only so many volunteers who would join if they know something big is coming up.

 

[Taser Confetti]

Most soldiers aren't marines though, a ton of soldiers are desk jockies, engineers or in charge of equipment. At most they will need to know how to shoot and aim for emergency situations, but short of fighting aliens or just as unlikely circumstances they are completely safe.

Most Marines aren’t ground forces either you moron.

The zoomers aren’t going to put up with this shit like the boomers did. They’ll be riots on the White House lawn if they try and pull this shit.

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

Anyone who believes the US will reinstate the draft is a fucking moron. Unless we get nuked or something, it's not happening.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

there's always posters online talking big about they'd shoot their officers

It's not really "talking big" if the alternative is getting killed by the enemy on the behalf of people who hate you. You're already dead either way - it doesn't take a heroic self-sacrificing gigachad to make that decision.

 

[Joshua Cohen Mohnstein]

You won't have too. They won't be able to process and try the sheer quantity of people refusing to muster. Many states would refuse to enforce it or provide help to federal agents in bringing these people to court for proceedings.

The reality is that even in Vietnam, only .5 percent of draftees who refused to serve got a prison sentence. And all of them got pardoned under Carter. Nobody had open fire on an agent at their front door because there were no door to door goon squads going after no shows. You win by simply ignoring the summons.

Exactly my point, there's too much inertia and too much decentralization in the US political system to do something so extreme and invasive for a war that isn't on US soil. The US is not Israel or Switzerland with its mandatory service to protect its tiny territory surrounded by larger potential enemies, nor is it like Napoleonic France with a mass conscription to swamp the opposition being both effective and central to a grand strategy of conquest, as based and redpilled it that may be.

If uncle sam expects to have enough people to compete with PRC or even conduct a ground offensive towards Iran, they really don't have any other options left. There are only so many volunteers who would join if they know something big is coming up.

Of course in life nothing is inevitable, but we'd sooner see tactical nuke deployment than a large scale ground invasion of Iran somehow draining all the reserves, national guard, every branch of the military. Draft talk is 99% of the time military commanders vocally fantasizing at the thought of more resources.

It's not really "talking big" when the alternative is getting killed by the enemy on the behalf of people who hate you. You're already dead either way - it doesn't take a heroic self-sacrificing gigachad to make that decision.

That's badass dude, then I'd make a speech to my fellow troops and they'd all follow me instead and we'd start a revolution brah