← Software for a Very Efficient Draft by Force
Timeline: Building the Draft Machine, 1980 to December 2026
Evidence rating: CONFIRMED for every dated event below, with the source on each linked page. STRONG for what the sequence shows: each piece was ordinary on its own day, and together they form a machine for an efficient forced draft, assembled mostly during two wars with Iran.
Read the dates in order. The pattern this investigation finds is in the order: the list is fixed, the money arrives, the war starts, the rule is filed, the simulator is ordered, and at every step the public is told nothing is happening.
Before: how refusal won (1969–2019)
| Date | Event | Page |
|---|---|---|
| December 1, 1969 | First televised draft lottery since 1942, for men born 1944–1950 | Lottery vs. data-driven draft |
| December 7, 1972 | Last draft call; the all-volunteer force follows in 1973 | Who got skipped in Vietnam |
| July 2, 1980 | President Carter restores draft registration | Safety in silence and numbers |
| 1980s | About twenty open refusers prosecuted; "safety in silence as well as safety in numbers" | Safety in silence and numbers |
| 1986 / 1988 | Last conviction (1986); enforcement of registration abandoned (1988) | Safety in silence and numbers |
| 2003 / May 2005 | Pentagon's JAMRS youth database built, then disclosed | JAMRS and recruiter data |
| July 2011 | DARPA launches its $42 million social-media program; its studies include Occupy activists | DARPA's social-media programs |
| December 23, 2016 | Congress creates the national commission on the draft | The 2019 commission |
| April 24, 2019 | Draft director tells the commission the agency wants to "identify critical skills" but is "not authorized under current law" | The 2019 commission |
Building the pieces (2020–2024)
| Date | Event | Page |
|---|---|---|
| January 2020 | During the Soleimani crisis, fake Iran draft notices circulate; the agency says it is "conducting business as usual" | Denials set beside the record |
| 2021 | Law removes the draft checkbox from the student-aid form; registration falls | How the law passed quietly |
| March 2022 | First Technology Modernization Fund award: $5.99 million for "analytics to inform decisions on any future mobilization" | TMF awards |
| July 2023 | Cloud7Works contract to rebuild the registration system for the cloud ($3.44 million) | Cloud7Works and the vendors |
| Early 2024 | The agency pitches automatic registration to supporters in Congress | How the law passed quietly |
| 2024 | CNAS "Draft Mobilization" report: the President sets the guidelines; collect more data for "data-informed mobilization" | The CNAS report |
| June 14, 2024 | House passes automatic registration, 217 to 199; the public is told it is "misinformation" | How the law passed quietly |
| October 2, 2024 | Agency announces moving "among the largest databases in the federal government" to the cloud in 2025 | TMF awards |
| Late 2024 | Automatic registration stripped in a closed-door conference | How the law passed quietly |
The first war and the law (2025)
| Date | Event | Page |
|---|---|---|
| March 2025 | Executive Order 14243 on "eliminating information silos" | DOGE and the draft list |
| April 2025 | Draft agency gives DOGE access to its registration data | DOGE and the draft list |
| June 2025 | $6 million award to modernize "conscription applications" with "AI-powered workflows" | TMF awards |
| June 13–24, 2025 | The Twelve-Day War; June 15, the Pentagon meets on Israel's request to intervene; June 21–22, U.S. strikes | The June 2025 war and the draft |
| September 2025 | Law review proposes "Replacing the National Draft Lottery with Artificial Intelligence" | The AI lottery proposal |
| September 2025 | Cloud7Works "RCV DATAWAREHOUSE PROJECT" ($1.8 million) | Cloud7Works and the vendors |
| September 10 – December 17, 2025 | Automatic registration: in the House bill, out of the Senate bill, back in through a closed conference; final votes 312–112 and 77–20 | How the law passed quietly |
| December 18, 2025 | Automatic draft registration signed into law (Pub. L. 119-60, Sec. 535) | Automatic registration |
The second war and the machine (2026)
| Date | Event | Page |
|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | Agency's five-year plan: "matching algorithms," "Artificial Intelligence/automation tools," four mobilization exercises a year | Automatic registration |
| January 2026 | Draft exercise rehearses "a specialized skills national service draft in 30 days" and "1 million inductees in 15 mos." | The 2026 exercise guide |
| February 28, 2026 | U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran begin the second war | Israel and the American draft |
| March 8, 2026 | White House: a draft is "not part of the current plan right now" but options stay "on the table" | "Not part of the current plan" |
| March 30, 2026 | Rule to carry out automatic registration filed with the White House, "about a month after the hostilities in Iran were initiated" | The rule |
| April 8–10, 2026 | News reaches tens of millions; an official calls the system "about effective manpower generation, channeling, management, and surveillance" | How far the story reached |
| April 18, 2026 | Palantir urges Americans to "seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force" | Palantir's point six |
| Spring 2026 | Army raises its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 42 | "Not part of the current plan" |
| May 20, 2026 | Agency asks companies about a "Conscription Readiness Model Simulation" | The Conscription Readiness Model |
| May 29, 2026 | Report: House bill would "formally merge US and Israeli military technology programs" | Section 224 |
| June 10, 2026 | Objector group: the agency's conscientious-objector pages are dead links | Conscientious objectors in 2026 |
| July 8, 2026 | The skills-first exercise documents are published | Special skills first |
| July 22, 2026 | Agency posts solicitation 90MC26Q0005 to simulate the full draft, including "no-shows" | The Readiness Simulation request |
| July 23, 2026 | The automatic-registration rule is withdrawn from White House review; the law's deadline stands | The rule |
| July 24–31, 2026 | The simulation story goes viral; the easy denials target the exaggerations | How far the story reached |
| August 4, 2026 | Reported "Funding Palantir" memo: up to $243.9 million | Maven and federal data |
| August 14, 2026 | Bids due for the draft simulation | The Readiness Simulation request |
| August 30, 2026 | Jerusalem Post column: a ground war in Iran would take "between 750 thousand and 1.5 million American troops" | Israel and the American draft |
| September 8, 2026 | Report: Pentagon asked OpenAI for models "That Can Be Used Domestically" | Surveillance tools already built |
| September 26, 2026 | No simulation award announced yet; the rule not republished | The draft wargame software |
| December 18, 2026 | Automatic draft registration takes effect | Automatic registration |
What the order shows
- The list was fixed by law ten weeks before the second war began.
- The money for "conscription applications" with "AI-powered workflows" arrived in the month of the first war.
- The rule to fill the list was filed a month into the second war.
- The simulator of the whole draft, including the men who refuse, was ordered in the fifth month of the war, a day before the rule was pulled from public view.
- At each step, the public explanation was that nothing was happening. See denials set beside the record.
Related Areas
Last Updated: 2026-09-26