Selective Service System plans computer simulation to wargame the draft

The Selective Service System wants a computer simulation to test whether its national mobilization plans would actually work, months before the agency begins automatically registering American men for the draft.

The Readiness Simulation project lands as the government overhauls a registration system in place since 1940. Under a proposed rule, men aged 18 to 26 will be automatically registered starting December 19, with the agency drawing on data held in other federal databases rather than requiring men to sign up themselves.

The agency's own assessment is blunt. In a Request for Quote, it warned that it currently relies on manual analysis, legacy modeling, outdated assumptions and historical datasets that fail to reflect modern demographics, communications channels, throughput constraints or operational readiness. Contractors are told to run the simulation while recognizing that legacy draft data may be unreliable.

The system would model the full mobilization pipeline: registration, selection, notification, delivery and classification, along with Military Entrance Processing Station throughput, no-shows, medical disqualification rates and diversions into the Alternative Service Program for conscientious objectors. It would also flag bottlenecks and test surge conditions.

Pulling records from other federal agencies raises privacy questions. The agency says the simulation will use anonymized aggregate data in a government-owned cloud environment. Vendor proposals to carry out the simulations are due August 14.