Pentagon orders review into military standards, including fitness and grooming
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a review of military standards, including physical health, body composition and modification. This is the comment Heggs promised during his time Confirmation hearing When asked about his remarks, he believed that military standards had eroded.
“It will be one of the first things we do in the Pentagon – is Comment In a gender-neutral way – ensuring that readiness and elite standards are cutting-edge and central,” Heggs said in January.
The Pentagon released a memorandum from Hegseth on Wednesday night, directing personnel’s deputy secretary of defense and preparing to review existing standards set by the military.
“We must remain vigilant to maintain the standard that makes the protection of the American people and our homes the deadliest and effective combat effectiveness in the world,” Hegss said. “Our opponents are not getting weaker and our mission is not getting more challenging.”
Gerry Bloom/AP
The memorandum directs review of inspection standards and changes since January 1, 2015. In December 2015, the Ministry of National Defense Announce It will open up all combat characters for women.
Hegseth, who had previously opposed the policy decision, said in a podcast interview with his appointment as Secretary of Defense: “We should not have women in combat roles. It has not made us more effective. It has not made us more lethal.”
Hegseth some went back to this view during the confirmation hearing and promised that women would be able to use combat roles if the standards remain high and “not eroded.”
Katherine Kuzminski, research director of the New American Security Center Research Center, told CBS News in an interview that men and women have separate requirements for the Army combat fitness test that each recruit must pass. However, to qualify for the Special Forces, the criteria are gender neutral.
“These standards are uniform in gender, which is why we see only a small number of women doing special actions,” Kazminsky said.
For example, as of early January, the Notorious Ranger program had 156 female graduates, and since it was first offered to women in 2015, 381 women have participated in the program, with a graduation rate of about 41%.
Ranger course requires all candidates to wear a full uniform of 15 meters and travel 5 miles in 40 minutes and 12 miles of March. ruck, according to army.
“The standards have not been lowered yet and every ranger course meets the same training standards,” an Army official told CBS News.
The Pentagon review may lead to changes in the Army Combat Fitness Test (General Test), so the requirements are the same for men and women.
Currently, the Army Combat Fitness Test is scored based on different requirements for age men and women. For example, a man between 17 and 21 years old must be able to travel at least two miles in 22 minutes, while a woman needs to travel the same distance at 23:22. For men and women of any age, the minimum requirements for manually releasing push-ups (involving lifting your hands from the ground at the bottom of the push-ups) are the same: 10.
Faced with the recruitment crisis, services in recent years have adjusted their drug and tattoo policies and offer enlistment bonuses to attract potential service staff while still maintaining physical and educational standards. The Army also opened pre-enlistment training camps to help potential candidates grow before they can undergo basic training.
Hegseth said at the confirmation hearing that while writing his book War Wars, he spoke with service members who told him that the standards of “direct, indirect, open and subtle” had changed, but Hegseth did not provide specific examples for the elderly.
Kuzminsky also said the defense minister’s review could include a reexamination of beauty standards, such as allowing women’s military Wear a ponytail Or the Navy allows some people to grow beardshaving is exacerbated by medical conditions.
“They seem like small things, but during the Biden administration, they are also related to broader initiatives to ensure that no standards have disproportionately impacted minorities,” Kuzminski said.
Kuzminski added that changing backs may have some impact on recruitment or retention, but “it’s not something to damage strength because everyone dressed in a uniform goal is professionalism and whatever the standards are, they follow the standards.”
