How long does it take to get from Draft to combat?

[Renew Deal]

Let's assume the draft returns. Congress passes it. President signs (or is overruled). Lottery happens. How long does it take from the lottery to get draftees onto the battlefield?

[Ocelot II]

1. What battlefield?

[Renew Deal]

2. Any

I'm assuming the actual travel time won't make a material difference.

[Ocelot II]

8. Army basic training is 10 weeks, then there's advanced training

in a specialty, another 10-15 weeks, depending. The last time there was a draft, during the Vietnam war,
IIRC it was usually about six months from entering the Army to going to Vietnam. But for there to be a draft in the first place it would have to be passed by Congress, which isn't going to happen.

[Renew Deal]

12. Never say never.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was one in the next 100 years.

[Tetrachloride]

3. US Army Basic Training is 22 weeks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Basic_Training

Ukraine does it faster

[Renew Deal]

10. I wonder if they would keep it that long during a crisis.

Wouldn't surprise me if some corners were cut.

[Gore1FL]

14. I don't know if that would be necessary.

I honestly don't see a draft on the horizon, but if there was, the current volunteer military is built to deal with China and Russia simultaneously. It should be able to withstand most conventional possibilities long enough to allow for adequate training.

[jmowreader]

26. There's BCT and OSUT, and OSUT is only for combat arms soldiers

For most Army jobs, you go to two schools before you are ready to go to a unit. The first is Basic Combat Training, where you learn how to be a soldier. It is ten weeks long. The other is Advanced Individual Training, where you learn the job you signed up for. Depending on the job, this can be up to a year...and if you joined an intelligence field that requires foreign language proficiency and have to go to language training between the two schools, or enlisted as a parachute rigger and need to go to jump school because you jump in rigger school, you're REALLY in school for a while.

If you enlist in infantry, armor, artillery or engineers, they combine the two schools into One Station Unit Training. The 22 weeks is OSUT for infantry troops.

[brooklynite]

4. Why do you imagine there's going to be a draft?

[calguy]

5. When I was in the Army during the Vietnam era...

Basic training was eight weeks and those who were going into the infantry went to another eight weeks of advanced infantry training before they were shipped off to Nam. Luckily, I enlisted so I wouldn't be assigned to the infantry. Sixteen weeks from your home to the battlefield wasn't an experience I wanted to have.

[Hugin]

6. My Dad was one of the first drafted for Korea.

It took six months and they had to build the training center. They showed up at the same time as the train with the lumber.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Same as any other recruit. You gets your notice, you takes your physical, and you get sent...

to basic training. That's a few weeks, maybe just one. Don't count waiting time from first notices and first physical. If actually a lottery, many, maybe most, do not get called.

Basic was two months, and then another 2-3 months for advanced combat training, maybe more if a complex MOS. Then we either got sent to Nam, or we lucked out.

Things could have changed. A lot.

[haele]

9. Around four to six months.

A lot depends on backfilling casualties as needed, but the US military does tend to want their soldiers to survive and be able to use those nifty weapons made by the US Military Industry.
Another reason why they've been relying on Reservists and National Guards units as surge units over the past 20 years. The DoD has figured out that sending in conscripts and untrained kids is a desperation move of a failed state that is going to lose.

Haele

[Hugin]

15. Raw conscripts are not the troops you want.

Agreed.

(SEE: Russia in Ukraine)

[brush]

23. So true. Conscripts are are a big reason why Russia's army is not doing well...

in Ukraine. I watched Gen. Patraeus being interviewed last night and he said that Russia's army doesn't have professional non-commissioned ranks. Their recruits are conscripted for a year and the most promising are trained to be coprorals/sergeants, but since it take six months to be trained as non-commissioned officers, once they're trained their year is up and the process has to start all over again with new bodies.

The general said this is why the Russian army in Ukraine is not doing well, why their convoys get stalled. If the officers in the lead get killed the soldiers wait to be told what to do as there are no sergeants. Which is why so many Russian generals are getting killed. The Ukrainians know this and wait for the generals to come to the front to see what the delays are and get picked off by snipers and Javelin missiles. Also their communication system is not very good and they're relying on cells phones which the Ukrainians have learned to geo-located and blast them.

Some of that makes sense but I was skeptical of Patraeus saying they have no professional non-coms so I googled it and it was true for decades but not so much recently. But they're still no match for the US Army, and it's turning out not for the Ukranians either, which is why the Russians are reduced to just bombing and shelling indiscriminately, seige warfare techniques, like they did in Aleppo and Grozny and in Ukraine now. Civilians, kids, military personel, hospitals, schools...everyone gets hit. It's brutal, cruel, and war criminal fighting.

Patraeus's assessment IMO has some merit to it as an explanation of why Putin's army has failed at what he thought would be a week-long operation at most.

[left-of-center2012]

11. There will be no U.S. draft

Unless the United States is directly attacked.

[BGBD]

20. Even then

probably wouldn't happen. Directly attacked on 9-11 and no draft followed.

Given our superior weapons and tech, I don't see a reason why we'd ever need a draft.

We would have to be a situation where we were actively fighting a war on our of territory and losing. If you told me ever nation in the world were going to team up to fight the US, I'd still bet on the US to win that war. I think we'd launch stratigic nukes before we started another draft.

[Aristus]

28. The fact that there wasn't a draft going into Iraq proved to me that Bush and Criminal Co weren't

serious about the war. They were just going after the oil. They didn't care how long we were there, just as long as they could profit off of the conflict. I understand Dickhead Cheney made billions from the war.

No draft is why we sent soldiers back to Iraq and Afghanistan three, four, even five times.

[BGBD]

29. There want a draft

Because it's the most politically toxic football out there. Plus the military had no real issues getting people to sign up and reenlist despite multiple tours.

[Enter stage left]

13. It depends on your MOS (military occupational specialty)...

it can be as short as 16-32 (typically not less than 32 weeks) weeks, or as long as a year or longer.

I was a communications & encryption specialist, my training lasted almost 13 months., on top of further training.

[Tetrachloride]

17. A relative of mine was also in communications. Hand picked

with security.

[Enter stage left]

21. Top secret. Still can't talk about it...52 years later.

[Tetrachloride]

22. My relative was a fair amount before.

If I had a thicker skin, I would have done something in the rough area. I had the application.

I misread the wishes of my father. And my relative never said or hinted a word. My father told me.

Also likely top secret in most aspects. Some is public knowledge.

No idea if my father told my Marine and Army brothers of my relative.

Also, my father’s best man had some one on one elite teacher or two.

[Enter stage left]

24. Just be thankful, & you're still here to talk about it. I hope your relative is too.

[BGBD]

16. A lot of quoting current training times...

but a couple of things to think about.

In a draft, most of the folks drafted would probably end up as infantry. People would also still be joining on a volunteer basis, and most of those would get first crack at chosing an MOS. Secondly, if our situation were bad enough to need another draft, I think the training time from infantry would be shortened dramatically. The one station one unit trianing would be normal and less than the current 22 weeks. I think the goal would be to go from draft date to delopyment within 3 - 4 months.

[Renew Deal]

19. I think you're probably right.

[Hoyt]

18. Depends on gravity of situation. One can grab people, give em a gun pretty quickly.

[UTUSN]

25. The lesson the warmongers took from Vietnam was:*NO*draft because it intensifies anti-war protest.

A couple of decades ago I finally got myself convinced that the Vietnam "anti-war" protests were more about anti-DRAFT than against the war or for peace.

Besides, with the proliferation of nukes and the rise of monsters willing to use them, the destruction will be over before governments can grind on.

[Chainfire]

27. It also depends on the branch of service

When I went into the Navy, just after we converted from sail, boot camp was 12 weeks. (during the Viet Nam war)
From there a new sailor could go directly to a ship or to a specialty school. So, minimum of 12 weeks for the Navy. (then)

Before going to a ship I had an additional 16 week school, and some folks had schools that could go two years.

I suspect that the answer the OP was looking for is roughly 9 months from first salute to a first shot fired in anger. What is more important than the formal training is the practical training on the battlefield. If a raw soldier can survive two weeks in battle, he is on the way to becoming a pro.