The Tape Test Is Dead: The Army's New WHtR Standard, Explained

// 01The one number

The new standard is the waist-to-height ratio: your waist measurement divided by your height, same units. The directive’s words:

The WHtR is adopted as the sole measurement for all Soldiers. The use of height and weight screening tables is discontinued. … The standard is a WHtR of less than and not equal to 0.55. AD 2026-13, para 5a and 5a(3)

Come in at 0.55 or above and you are flagged and enrolled in the ABCP (para 5a(5)). Every Soldier gets measured at least twice per calendar year (para 5a(2)), and every Soldier must have a WHtR recorded in ATIS within 90 days of the directive, which works out to roughly early October 2026 (para 5a(9)). It applies to the Regular Army, National Guard, and Reserve, plus USMA and SROTC cadets, retention actions, and military schools (paras 3 and 5).

// 02Everything that died

The directive is short because it deletes more than it adds. As of AD 2026-13:

• The height/weight screening tables: discontinued outright (para 5a).
• The body-fat tape test: not authorized for any purpose, including challenging a WHtR result (para 5a(1)).
• The AFT score exemption: no AFT score exempts anyone from the standard; AD 2025-17 is rescinded (para 5a(7)). The 465-and-above carve-out from last September is history.
• Mandatory monthly ABCP assessments and progression requirements: rescinded. Commanders decide when to reassess, and a Soldier is removed administratively as soon as the standard is met (para 5b(6)).
• The unit ABCP NCO: requirement rescinded; commanders now own the program directly (para 5b(1)).
• DA Form 5501: rescinded. Everything records on the revised DA Form 5500 and in ATIS (para 5a(8)).
• ABCP flag transfers: Flag code K stays non-transferable, and the transfer provisions in AR 600-8-2 are rescinded (para 5b(3)).

// 03Your protections, verbatim

Four provisions in the directive work in the Soldier’s favor, and they are worth knowing cold:

If it is determined that the Soldier’s initial WHtR does not meet the standard, a confirmation measurement will be conducted on the same duty day by a team other than the one that took the initial set of measurements. This must occur before any actions are taken by the commander. AD 2026-13, para 5a(4)

• The 7-day buffer: commanders will allow a minimum of 7 days between the AFT or CFT and a WHtR measurement, with deviation only for urgent operational needs (para 5a(6)).
• The medical screen: Regular Army and AGR Soldiers enrolled in the ABCP get a commander-requested medical examination to rule out an underlying condition. Guard and Reserve Soldiers may request one, at their own expense if not on active duty (paras 5b(4) and 5b(5)).
• The separation pause: units may initiate separation actions, but no Soldier will be separated until HQDA completes a 180-day assessment and publishes further guidance (para 5b(8)).

// 04How it’s measured, per the new DA Form 5500

The directive names the standard but not the technique. The technique is on the revised DA Form 5500 (July 2026 edition), and three details matter:

• The waist is measured at the navel and rounded down to the nearest 0.50 inch, three times, then averaged.
• Height is rounded to the nearest 0.50 inch.
• The ratio is truncated, never rounded. It records to three decimal places and everything after is dropped. The form’s own example: a calculated 0.549888 records as 0.549 and meets the standard. A 0.550 does not.

Notice the direction every one of those rules leans: round-down on the waist, truncation on the ratio. At the margin, the arithmetic favors the Soldier. A 37.4-inch waist records as 37.0. A ratio a hair under 0.550 passes. Know the procedure before you stand on the line, because the difference between 0.549 and 0.550 is the difference between walking away and being enrolled.

// 05What your max waist actually is

Since the standard is a ratio, your ceiling is simple arithmetic: 0.55 times your height, in inches, and you must come in under it. At 68 inches tall that is anything under 37.40 inches. At 72 inches, under 39.60. At 64, under 35.20. The free cheat sheet below has the full table from 60 to 78 inches, but the formula is the whole trick: height times 0.55, stay under it.

// 06What nobody can tell you yet

The form gives the landmarks and the math, but the fuller measuring guidance (measurer training, uniform during measurement, the edge cases the old program spelled out in detail) has not been published for the WHtR era. Anyone on social media confidently describing those details right now is quoting the dead regime or guessing. When the G-1 implementing guidance drops, this post and the cheat sheet get updated the same week, and everyone who grabbed the sheet gets the new version by email.

Related reading: body composition is one of two standards overhauls this year. The other is AD 2026-07’s Combat Field Test, a second annual fitness test for 24 combat MOSs, and its 7-day testing buffer interacts with the WHtR measurement window described above.

Want your number right now? The free WHtR calculator runs the exact DA Form 5500 math: round-down waist, truncated ratio, your real max waist by height.

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