Defense Secretary Hegseth orders military to adopt uniform combat standards for men and women

04/06/2025 / By Laura Harris

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mandated that all U.S. military combat roles enforce gender-neutral physical fitness standards, ensuring men and women meet identical benchmarks based on operational demands.
The directive requires military departments to distinguish between combat and non-combat roles, with stricter fitness standards for combat positions to ensure mission readiness.
The policy prohibits lowering fitness requirements for any service member, ensuring all combat personnel meet the same rigorous expectations regardless of gender.
Hegseth also ordered a review of fitness and grooming standards across military branches to assess changes since 2015 (when combat roles opened to women) and ensure policies prioritize readiness and meritocracy.
He also criticized previous gender-based fitness standards in combat roles, arguing that maintaining high, uniform standards is essential for military effectiveness against evolving threats.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed a directive requiring the U.S. military to apply the same physical fitness standards to both men and women serving in combat roles.

The memo, released by the Department of Defense on March 31, mandates that all combat arms positions enforce gender-neutral physical requirements, ensuring that service members are held to identical benchmarks based solely on operational demands.

“As the nature of warfare evolves and the demands on our service members grow more complex, it is imperative that we assess and refine the physical fitness standards that enable our readiness and lethality.

“I am directing the Secretaries of the Military Departments to develop comprehensive plans to distinguish combat arms occupations from non-combat arms occupations. This effort will ensure that our standards are clear, mission-focused and reflective of the unique physical demands placed on our Service members in various roles,” Hegseth wrote in the memo.

The directive orders military departments to distinguish between combat and non-combat roles, with special emphasis on identifying positions that demand heightened physical fitness for both entry and sustained performance.

“All entry-level and sustained physical fitness requirements within combat arms positions must be sex-neutral, based solely on the operational demands of the occupation and the readiness needed to confront any adversary,” Hegseth continued.

Moreover, the policy explicitly prohibits lowering standards for any existing service member, ensuring that all personnel in combat arms roles meet the same rigorous expectations.

“For far too long, we allowed standards to slip, and different standards for men and women in combat arms MOS’s [Military Occupational Specialties] and jobs. That’s not acceptable,” Hegseth said in a separate video statement on March 30, filmed after returning from a trip to Japan. “We need to have the same standards, male or female, in our combat roles to ensure our men and women under our leaders have the best possible leaders and the highest possible standards that are not based at all on your sex.”

Hegseth also orders review of military fitness and grooming standards

The new memo comes after Hegseth ordered the review of military fitness and grooming standards earlier in March.

“We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” Hegseth said at that time. “Our adversaries are not growing weaker, and our tasks are not growing less challenging.”

In line with this, Hegseth ordered the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness to assess current standards across military branches and examine how they have evolved since Jan. 1, 2015. That date precedes a landmark 2015 Pentagon decision to open all combat roles to women, a policy Hegseth has previously criticized.

The review, which Hegseth emphasized would be conducted in a “gender-neutral” manner, aims to ensure that military policies prioritize “readiness and meritocracy.” It is expected to examine whether branches have adjusted fitness tests, body fat regulations or grooming standards in ways that could impact combat effectiveness.

Watch this InfoWars segment explaining how a woke military proves America is under attack from within.

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