Published Jul 8, 2026, 1:02 PM EDT
Every soldier has 90 days to get measured and recorded under the new system since the new policy took effect July 7.
Army officials announced Tuesday that the service has scrapped its decades-old height and weight standards, tape tests and supplemental body fat assessments in favor of a single waist-to-height ratio, becoming the last military branch to adopt the standard the Pentagon ordered in December. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll signed the directive July 1, and it took effect immediately July 7. Every soldier has 90 days to get measured and recorded under the new system. Waist divided by height now has to be below 0.55. On its face, the change looks fairly straightforward. Measure the waist, divide by height, stay under the line. Buried in that fine print, however, is a policy that goes a little further than the announcement suggests: the tape test is now gone. Also eliminated are alternative assessment methods and appeals. Exemptions that let the Army's strongest performers on the fitness test skip body composition screening altogether have also been cut. "This is about lethality and health," Sgt. Maj. Edgar Monsanto, a senior enlisted leader in the Army G-1's Directorate of Prevention, Resilience and Readiness, said in the service's announcement.
