The U.S. Air Force is lowering body fat standards for new recruits as the military branch struggles to find enough people to join its ranks.
The Air Force is lowering the body fat measurement to 26 percent for males and 36 percent for females, Leslie Brown, a spokesperson for the Air Force Recruiting Service, told The Epoch Times via email. The previous requirements were 20 percent and 28 percent.
Military branches have been struggling to recruit during the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials blaming factors such as a hot job market and a shrinking pool of qualified youth. The Air Force narrowly met its active-duty recruiting goal for fiscal year 2022, but had “a minimal bank” of recruits lined up for fiscal year 2023, Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, an Air Force recruiting official, told Congress around the start of fiscal year 2023 in October 2022. The Air Force also failed to meet its recruiting goals for reserve components….