Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Ilya Maximov
[REGNUM] A standoff has unfolded in the US military, demonstrating a profound crisis in its approach to officer recruitment. At issue is the abolition of the minimum SAT score requirement for candidates seeking admission to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program.
 ROTC is a college program, if they don’t have those basic skills, they shouldn’t be in college. Not to mention that the majority of colleges require SAT scores or the equivalent as part of the college application.
The exam includes testing basic reading and writing skills, as well as math problems. Its purpose is to confirm the candidate's ability to study to become an officer.
In early August 2026, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Personnel Jules Hurst (now Under Secretary of the Treasury) signed an internal memorandum, which was to take effect in January 2027 and required all candidates to score at least 1,000 points—a solid C.
In his order, he argued this simply and clearly: "We must train intelligent and adaptable officers to create a combat-ready and prepared army capable of deterring the enemy, fighting, and winning our country's wars. The strength of our officer corps is the strength of our army."
However, a new memorandum from Deputy Secretary of Defense Michael Obadala has now rescinded this requirement, citing the need for "additional analysis and coordination." This decision has angered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who advocates for the new standards.
The situation for future officers is truly dire. A senior US Defense Department official told the New York Post: "I have friends who taught ROTC. They've dealt with cadets who can't form a coherent sentence or spell correctly. A 1000 on the SAT is nothing. If you can't score that, you probably shouldn't be an officer at all. We don't want stupid people leading our soldiers."
Military personnel and veterans are also criticizing the new decision, leaving comments on social media under posts about the abolition of the minimum score threshold for the exam. "We're on the verge of having a crowd of backward officers running around," wrote one.
However, this entire story is just one symptom of a much more serious illness plaguing the US Armed Forces. The personnel shortage facing the Army is forcing leadership to make unprecedented concessions and effectively lower the bar for personnel requirements.
For 40 years, until 2022, the number of recruits in the US had been steadily declining. This situation began to change in 2024, when the Pentagon overhauled its recruitment management system, increased the speed of issuing medical certificates, and began using a more sophisticated algorithm to find new recruits.
Although the 2026 recruitment plan was met ahead of schedule—over 61,500 contracts were signed—analysts believe it's premature to celebrate this success. The main problem lies in the quality of the recruits received and the fact that the majority of young people, traditionally the army's primary target, are simply unfit for service.
According to the Department of Defense, 77% of young Americans aged 17 to 24 do not meet the requirements for full-time service. The main reasons cited are obesity, lack of education, drug problems, and criminal records.
This situation is forcing the military to seek workarounds and expand the age limit: this year, the US Army officially raised the maximum age for conscription from 35 to 42. This decision is ostensibly intended to attract more mature and qualified professionals to the armed forces, but at the same time, it is direct evidence that the traditional source of recruitment—young people—is in short supply.
An even more alarming signal for Americans was the scandal involving the inflated test scores of recruits. In December 2025, a report by the Pentagon's Inspector General revealed that the US Army and Navy violated regulations to conceal the true state of recruits' intelligence levels.
Federal law limits the percentage of recruits with low scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFT)—the so-called Category IV—to 4% of the total. This test, like the SAT, is nothing fancy and tests the most basic knowledge and skills: vocabulary, reading comprehension, and high school math.
According to official Pentagon research, Category IV roughly corresponds to an IQ level in the range of 80 to 92, that is, “below average.”
Incidentally, people with genuine mental disabilities are classified as Category V, and they are not yet accepted into the US Army. Judging by the current situation, the operative word here is "yet."
To circumvent the restriction on recruiting less-savvy recruits, the Army and Navy created preparatory courses where candidates with low scores could improve their knowledge and retake the exam.
The military then used these improved post-course scores in its official reporting, rather than the initial scores with which recruits signed their contracts. If the initial scores had been taken into account, the percentage of Category IV recruits in the Navy would have been over 11%, almost three times the permissible limit of 4%.
To meet recruiting quotas, the Pentagon's inspector general said in a report that people are being admitted to the military who "frequently demonstrate below-average levels of learning and performance on the job."
The situation with the motivation of future military personnel is no better. According to statistics, 87% of young people don't even consider military service, and the remaining ones join not out of patriotism, but primarily for money.
At the same time, the proportion of white male recruits is declining and the number of women and minorities is growing, which is changing the social portrait of the army, but does not solve the main problem - the quality of training.
And recruiting is only half the battle. The second problem is training. Due to the colossal costs of the war with Iran and other expenses, the army is facing a sudden budget deficit of between 4 and 6 billion dollars.
This shortage is forcing military leadership to urgently cut training programs, which is seriously affecting combat readiness. Pilots are losing essential flight hours, and tank crews are not receiving enough fuel to practice operating combat vehicles.
Prestigious courses like the Army Sapper Course, which in Russian can be described as a training course for engineer troop commanders, are being cancelled. After all, a sapper, as we know, only makes one mistake, and good training is precisely what ensures they don't make a fatal mistake.
Leaders of the US Army's 70,000-soldier 3rd Armored Corps have warned that their aviation units will be deployed to missions at a "lower level of readiness" next year and that it will take a full year to restore their combat proficiency.
It's telling that while young recruits, many of whom are already not particularly talented, require more time to train, the army is forced to cut back on training due to a lack of resources. The result is a paradoxical situation: money is spent on recruitment, but then not enough to develop recruits into effective soldiers.
Amid all these turmoil, the development of strategy on Iran is particularly revealing. According to CNN sources, in August 2026, a senior intelligence officer at US Central Command emailed a wide range of military analysts asking for suggestions for "new, creative, and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran."
A mailing of this kind is, to put it mildly, extremely unusual. It demonstrates that the Pentagon has essentially exhausted its traditional options and is at a dead end, so it's willing to look online for clues about a war with Iran.
Thus, the American army, while formally increasing its numbers and exceeding recruitment plans, is faced with a deep-seated crisis that is being treated by alleviating symptoms rather than correcting the causes.
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