Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Sunday a sweeping new policy that will require the U.S. military to adopt equal physical and performance standards for men and women serving in combat roles.
The directive, issued via a Department of Defense memo, marks a major shift in Pentagon policy and is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to reassert what officials call “combat readiness through accountability.”
“For far too long, we have allowed standards to slip. We’ve had different standards for men/women serving in combat arms MOS’s and jobs…. That’s not acceptable, and it changes right now,” said Hegsseth Sunday.
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The memo directs all branches of the U.S. armed services to review current combat standards and implement a uniform set of requirements for all service members, regardless of sex. The review will be conducted immediately and reported back to the Department of Defense within 60 days.
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The policy comes after years of controversy over gender-specific fitness benchmarks. In 2022, the U.S. Army adjusted its Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) to incorporate different standards for men and women, following a RAND Corporation study that revealed 65% of women failed the test at one point in 2021 — compared to significantly lower failure rates for men.
The disparity led to the introduction of gender-based scoring, a move that was lauded by some for promoting inclusion but criticized by others as a dilution of combat preparedness.
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Hegseth’s memo is expected to reverse that approach entirely.
Criticism of unequal standards has also surrounded the Army’s elite Ranger School, where several former Rangers have alleged that female candidates were given additional opportunities to pass the grueling five-day selection phase known as “RAP week.” These claims have never been officially substantiated but remain part of ongoing debates about standards in elite military units.
Hegseth’s move is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reorient Pentagon priorities away from what officials have called “social engineering” and toward battlefield readiness.
Each service branch — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force — will now be tasked with auditing and potentially overhauling physical and performance tests related to combat-specific roles. It remains unclear how this shift will affect female service members currently serving in those capacities.
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