Neither short nor tall, military aspirants will not be subject to height limits.
The Ministry of Defense has begun the procedures to modify the order that regulates the requirements to enter the Armed Forces and generally eliminate the restrictions that existed until now.
The minimum height is set at 1.55 meters for women and 1.60 meters for men.
Neither can access anyone who exceeds 2.03 meters in height.
It is expected that this modification will begin to be applied in the "next calls and selection processes of 2023", as reported this Thursday by the department headed by Margarita Robles.
These limits for access to the scale of officers of the Civil Guard corps will also be eliminated.
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The change requires reforming the 2019 order that approved the required medical list for admission to military training centers.
The height limits will be maintained for men and women when this characteristic constitutes "an essential and determining requirement" to occupy posts in certain units.
The elimination of these requirements seeks, according to Defense, to advance equal opportunities and facilitate the attraction and recruitment of talent from the Armed Forces.
In recent years, the minimum height requirements in the Army and other police forces have been softened, either as a result of a court ruling, or due to the Government's interest in becoming homogeneous with the police forces of other countries.
In 2018, Defense reduced the minimum height for women to enter the Army from 1.60 meters to 1.55.
The decision was made to conform to a 2017 ruling in which the Court of Justice of the EU positioned itself against having equal minimum heights for both sexes.
The Supreme Court forced the Ministry of Defense in 2019 to admit to the Basic Air Academy an applicant who was excluded for being 1.55 meters tall, five centimeters less than the height required in the call to which she applied.
The woman herself passed all the tests, in which there were psychophysical attitude tests, English language, or a medical examination, but she was classified as unfit.
In her appeal, the candidate argued that the requirement of a biological requirement such as height to access the public service must be justified.
In addition, that this characteristic was not necessary to perform the functions that she had to develop in the training center for the position of air traffic controller of the Ministry of Defense.
Interior announced a little over a year ago that they would also abolish the minimum height to enter the National Police from the next call, scheduled for this 2023. In the case of this police force, men had to be 1.65 meters tall. height at least, and women 1.60.
These physical requirements are maintained for special groups such as the GEO (Special Operations Group) and the riot police (which include Police Intervention Units and Prevention and Reaction Units).
At that time, the ministry headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska stressed that it meant equating the Spanish police with other police forces in European countries, such as France, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Slovakia or the United Kingdom, among many others,
The average height of 19-year-old Spanish youths stood at 1.76 meters in 2019, three centimeters more than in 1985. Girls of the same age measured 1.62 meters, half a centimeter more than in 1985, according to a study which analyzed the size of 65 million children and young people around the world prepared by Imperial College London and published by
The Lancet
in 2020.
