Benin
21 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
in practice, volunteers may be taken at the age of 18; both sexes
are eligible for military service; conscript tour of duty - 18
months (2006)
Bermuda
18-23 years of age; eligible men required to register for
conscription as needed into the Bermuda Regiment, which is largely
voluntary; term of service 39 months (2007)
Bhutan
18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
conscription (2008)
Bolivia
18 years of age for 12-month compulsory military service;
when annual number of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory
recruitment is effected, including conscription of boys as young as
14; 15-19 years of age for voluntary premilitary service, provides
exemption from further military service (2008)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
17 years of age for voluntary military
service in the Federation and in the Republika Srpska; conscription
abolished January 2006; 4-month service obligation (2006)
Botswana
18 is the apparent age of voluntary military service; the
official qualifications for determining minimum age are unknown
(2001)
Brazil
21-45 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
service obligation - 9 to 12 months; 17-45 years of age for
voluntary service; an increasing percentage of the ranks are
"long-service" volunteer professionals; women were allowed to serve
in the armed forces beginning in early 1980s when the Brazilian Army
became the first army in South America to accept women into career
ranks; women serve in Navy and Air Force only in Women's Reserve
Corps (2001)
Brunei
18 years of age (est.) for voluntary military service;
non-Malays are ineligible to serve (2007)
Bulgaria
18-27 years of age for voluntary military service;
conscript service obligation - 9 months; as of May 2006, 67% of the
Bulgarian Army comprised of professional soldiers; conscription
ended as of 1 January 2008; Air and Air Defense Forces and Naval
Forces became fully professional at the end of 2006 (2008)
Burkina Faso
18 years of age for compulsory military service; 20
years of age for voluntary military service (2001)