Air Force changes body fat percentage requirements amid pilot shortage
Julia Johnson
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The Air Force is reportedly loosening its body composition requirements and allowing recruits to have higher percentages of body fat.
“The Air Force is looking to open the aperture on qualifying a broader pool of young Americans for service in the Air Force. These changes bring the Air Force in line with DOD policy,” Air Force Recruiting Service spokeswoman Leslie Brown said in a statement.
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“While recruits will be allowed to join with greater body fat percentages, they will still be expected to meet the same fitness standards as everyone else to stay in the service,” she added. “That means meeting the waist-to-height ratio requirement the Air Force announced in January and implemented this month.”
Previously, men were required to have at most 20% body fat and women were required to have at most 28%. These standards have now reportedly been changed to 26% for men and 36% for women.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2017 and 2020, 41.9% of adults in the United States were obese.
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The Air Force has been dealing with a shortage of pilots, which grew between 2021 and 2021.
“We are managing our way through this, but it is something we are addressing,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said last year of the shortage.