Despite the British army's global reputation of being efficient and performance-driven, new figures published Sunday suggest that its soldiers might be getting "too fat to fight."
Twice a year, all British army soldiers are required to complete a personal fitness assessment, which must be re-taken within seven days upon failure and might get one discharged upon multiple failures, Agence France-Presse reported. The past three years has seen more than 32,000 soldiers fail the test at some point, while risk of health problems and being overweight caused more than 22,000 others to fall short of the criteria as well, according to Ministry of Defense figures.
Men under the age of 29 must complete 44 press-ups in two minutes, followed by 50 sit-ups in two minutes, and a 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometre) run within 10.5 minutes, with women under the age of 30 facing a slightly easier test of 21 press-ups, 50 sit-ups and 13 minutes in which to complete the run. Old soldiers have much more relaxed fitness rules.
According to the figures obtained by the Sunday Times newspaper, 29,600 men and 2,819 women failed their fitness tests between April 2011 and March 2014.
"This figure represents 11 percent of the army serving in that period and many of those who failed will have subsequently passed their fitness test," the Ministry of Defense said in a statement Sunday. "All personnel are provided with the support and training necessary to meet the army's physical standards, with additional help for those personnel who fail to meet this criteria."
"Personnel who remain unable to meet the standard could ultimately be discharged."
More than 22,000 soldier's unfit states were also found to be responsible for their increased risk type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, shortness of breath and heart disease, in the Sunday Times story headlined "Too fat to fight," which quoted one senior officer who blamed the "appalling diet" of many troops.
"While soldiers can have salads and low-calorie meals, they can also have a cooked breakfast, followed by chips at lunch and chips at dinner and a stodgy pudding, too," the officer said.
The figures on fitness do not include those injured in Iraq and Afghanistan or those recovering from illness or training injuries.
