Hegseth: Combat troops must meet 'highest male standard only'

(NewsNation) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the fitness requirements for all military combat jobs return to the highest male physical standard.

"War does not care if you're a man or a woman, neither does the enemy," Hegseth said during a meeting with top military officials Tuesday. "But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral."

During the speech, he announced that a “combat field test” would be created for combat arms units, and that the units must “execute their service test at a gender-neutral, age-normed male standard scored above 70%.”

In a document obtained by NewsNation per a source familiar with the changes, the combat test is in addition to the existing service fitness t