Should US, like Ukraine, adjust its enlistment age?

As the tide of the war has turned in Russia’s favor, that attitude may be changing. In April, Ukraine lowered its minimum age for military mobilization from 27 to 25, hoping to replenish losses and create additional units. Ukraine currently fields between 680,000 and 900,000 active duty personnel in its military — neither number sufficient to defeat Russia’s invasion of the country’s south and east. “Living near an aggressive country means we must continue to adapt,” said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a member of Parliament and head of Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Freedom of Speech. “We need to prepare reserves, and logically, gradually lowering the age is necessary.”

Yet even as Ukraine dips into its youth as a potential source for national defense, the US military, shocked by recruiting shortfalls that have left its Army, Air Force, and Navy branches tens of thousands of troops short of their authorized strength, has begun considering raising the maximum age for people seeking to join.

Citizens and noncitizens are eligible to serve in the US military beginning at age 17, with a signed permission slip from their parents, and can enlist in various services up until 42 — a number that can be extended under some special circumstances.

Whether the problem is fitness — only 23 percent of Americans aged 17 to 24 are fit enough to join, according to the Department of Defense — an apparent growing perception among white men that the military is not for them, or competition for young workers from other sources of employment, the military attracted 41,000 fewer volunteers in fiscal 2023 than it hoped for, with only the relatively small Space Force and Marines making their numbers. The recruiting numbers for 2024 look better for the Army and Air Force — not the Navy — but this is only after those services lowered their recruiting goals.

But if Ukraine can hold the line against Russia with a military that is on average drastically older than their US counterparts — 43 for Ukraine versus 28.5 for the United States — some feel that modern warfare might have more flexibility to accommodate an older, more professional force. Older recruits come with more life skills and greater maturity; what they may lack in physical fitness and resilience, they make up for with knowledge and reliability.

“Does everybody need to be a Ranger jumping out of airplanes?” Sean McFate, an adjunct professor of international relations at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and a former nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, asked me. “What about the hackers? What about drone pilots? Maybe the military should rethink the ‘warrior ethos’ for the 21st century.”

McFate, a former paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, believes that the answer to America’s recruiting problems is a combination of additional focus on fitness and education, plus expanding the potential pool of recruits to fill jobs that cannot easily or wisely be met with contractors. “There was a time when people felt that the military didn’t need women, or certain racial minorities. I think we need to be a lot more open-minded about our approach to age as a number.”

Across the world, militaries maintain varying maximums for enlisting troops. Much like the United States, China’s military, the biggest in the world, relies almost exclusively on high school and college-aged recruits, with an age range of 18 to 22 for most applicants — and exceptions for degree holders who can join as late as 26. But many militaries tend toward middle age. In Brazil, the maximum age of enlistment is 45, whereas in Germany, that goes up to 50 for certain professionals joining the reserves.

In the United States, the Air Force and Space Force have already experimented with raising the maximum age of enlistment. In late 2023 it went up three years, from 39 to 42. Other services could follow suit; furthermore, as Ukraine has demonstrated with success against a larger and better-equipped enemy, there is no reason to believe the maximum age of enlistment for the US military couldn’t be raised above 42.

Even as it lowers the age for conscription, Ukraine is also pushing the upper limits when it comes to the maximum allowable age for enlistees. Ihor Lutsenko, a former journalist and member of Parliament who now serves with the military, wrote in a Facebook post that Ukraine ought to permit people older than 60 to serve in the military. He said many older men would gladly serve and are capable of carrying out some military tasks. It is possible that this could help address Ukraine’s personnel requirements.

Where a person falls on the argument over the maximum age of enlistment in the United States (which is obviously not at war) depends on whether one believes the most important thing is preserving peak physical readiness among military troops or maintaining the core concept of the all-volunteer force. If the former, the maximum age of enlistment must be lower; if the latter, it can be higher.

A paper published by the Center for a New American Security argued something similar: that in the event of a US draft, older citizens would be mobilized before younger citizens.

For my part, I spent years in the US Army as an infantry officer, before it integrated women into the ranks, and saw a few poor physical specimens in their teens struggle to carry a full basic load of ammunition and equipment into combat. During the two months I spent as a volunteer with Ukrainian soldiers, I saw a couple dozen men in their 50s (a handful were older) do a decent job of humping ammunition and equipment back and forth over a training ground. They were doing no worse of a job than those American teens in Afghanistan so many years ago.

Ukraine’s military must find a way to bring more young people into its ranks — particularly given the ongoing threat of Russian military gains. Meanwhile, the US military might seriously consider raising the minimum age of enlistment higher than some feel is comfortable or prudent. If the youngest generation is skeptical about joining or serving, their elders are probably not.

Adrian Bonenberger is a writer and a founding member of American Veterans for Ukraine.