Pakistan
16 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers
cannot be deployed for combat until age of 18; the Pakistani Air
Force and Pakistani Navy have inducted their first female pilots and
sailors (2006)
Papua New Guinea
18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)
Paraguay
18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
service; conscript service obligation - 12 months for Army, 24
months for Navy (2004)
Peru
18 years of age for compulsory military service (1999)
Philippines
18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
service (2001)
Poland
17 years of age for compulsory military service after January
1st of the year of 18th birthday; 17 years of age for voluntary
military service; in 2005, Poland plans to shorten the length of
conscript service obligation from 12 to 9 months; by 2008, plans
call for at least 60% of military personnel to be volunteers; only
soldiers who have completed their conscript service are allowed to
volunteer for professional service; as of April 2004, women are only
allowed to serve as officers and noncommissioned officers (2004)
Portugal
18 years of age for voluntary military service; compulsory
military service was ended in 2004; women serve in the armed forces,
on naval ships since 1993, but are prohibited from serving in some
combatant specialties (2005)
Qatar
18 years of age for voluntary military service; land forces
enlisted personnel are largely unprofessional foreign nationals
(2005)
Romania
all military inductees (including women) are volunteers who
contract for an initial five-year term of service; subsequent
voluntary service contracts are for successive three-year terms
until the age of 36; minimum age for voluntary military service is
18 (2006)
Russia
Russia has adopted a mixed conscript-contract force; 18-27
years of age; males are registered for the draft at 17 years of age;
length of compulsory military service is two years; plans call for
reduction in mandatory service to 18 months in 2007 and to one year
by 2008; 30% of Russian army personnel were contract servicemen at
the end of 2005; planning calls for volunteer servicemen to compose
70% of armed forces by 2010, with the remaining servicemen
consisting of conscripts; as of November 2006, the Armed Forces had
more than 60 units manned with contract personnel totalling over
78,000 contract privates and sergeants; 88 Ministry of Defense units
have been designated as permanent readiness units and are expected
to become all-volunteer by end 2007; these include most air force,
naval, and nuclear arms units, as well as all airborne and naval
infantry units, most motorized rifle brigades, and all special
forces detachments (2006)