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yesterday

Pentagon Orders Six-Month Review of Women in Ground Combat Roles

The Institute for Defense Analyses will assess service data to evaluate sex‑neutral standards a decade after combat arms opened to women.

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addresses a crowd of soldiers and others during a celebration in honor of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army in Fort Bragg, N.C., on June 10, 2025.
Cpl. Jessica Stewart, an automatic rifleman with the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, Feb. 24, 2015.
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Overview

  • Undersecretary Anthony Tata directed the Army and Marine Corps to submit readiness, training, performance, casualty, command climate and deployability data, and to name points of contact to the Institute for Defense Analyses by Jan. 15.
  • The memo also requests any internal, non‑public research on the integration of women in combat roles for inclusion in the assessment.
  • Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said combat arms standards will be elite, uniform and sex neutral, adding the department will not lower requirements for quotas or an ideological agenda.
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously opposed women in ground combat and has pressed for a return to the “highest male standards,” framing the policy context for the review.
  • About 3,800 women serve in Army infantry, armor and artillery and roughly 700 in Marine ground combat roles, figures that critics cite as they warn the review could be used to restrict access.