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Female service members who served in the US military are pushing back against Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth's announcement that standards for military positions will "return to the highest male standard," saying the standards have historically been the same for men and women.

"None of us have ever requested preferential treatment," Elisa Cardnell, who served for half a decade, explained the media.

Speaking hundreds of military leaders on this week, Hegseth repeated his views that the military had lowered requirements to accommodate women and placed troops at risk. His new directives would bring them back to a higher level, he said.

"If it means zero females meet the criteria for combat jobs, then that's acceptable," he remarked.

He maintained that women would not be excluded from the military outright.

Some women who served were angered.

"I'm sick and tired of Pete Hegseth lying about female service members and requirements," former US Marine fighter pilot Amy McGarth declared in a video.

"It has consistently been a single benchmark for those jobs," she continued. "At no point was there a male requirement or a woman's standard for operating an aircraft."

The Navy veteran, too, said that sex and years were not included in assessments given for combat roles.

Military requirements are established variably based on the division a individual is serving in, if they are in elite units, ground forces, armored divisions or pararescue, she noted. Nonetheless, all personnel in those roles have to successfully complete the identical assessment.

"These standards have always been gender neutral, and they have always been set at a high standard," she said. "Naturally, some females are going to make those, but not all men do either."

That differs from the same for the yearly fitness assessments administered to all service members, which include standard drills like upper-body exercises. In those cases, the standards and scores vary according to age and gender, and the assessments vary by unit.

Ms Cardnell said it remains unclear if Hegseth will actually bring major reforms to how military personnel are evaluated.

In his address, Hegseth stated: "Wherever that proven fitness requirements were altered, especially since 2015, when military standards were changed to ensure women could meet criteria, must be restored to their original standard."

He appeared to refer to a order in 2015 by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter that all military jobs be available for female personnel and that any person, regardless of sex, who fulfills the criteria should be able to enlist.

"Regarding every position that requires physical power to perform in battle, those physical standards must be high and unbiased," Hegseth said. "If women can make it, outstanding. If not, that's the reality."

In general, Hegseth said he was revising standards across the military to "address decades of decline" and that the armed forces have "advanced too many officers for the incorrect motives," like race, gender and "historic so-called firsts."

Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who was severely injured while serving as a combat pilot in the Middle East, told reporters after the address: "From someone who's unfit for his own job, it's quite biased to discuss females who are eligible to perform their duties."

She added that his remarks could harm enlistment.

Female personnel in the armed forces were initially permitted to pilot military planes in the Navy and Air Force in 1993, though they were barred from ground combat. That changed in 2013 when the Combat Exclusion Policy was lifted and by 2016 military positions were open to all.

Because of how not long ago females were included in every level, many are now still in the midst of their careers, Ms Cardnell explained.

"Progress is gradual to observe females break that brass ceiling, and we have not yet had a opportunity to see that," she remarked.

Currently serving and former women in the military are worried that Hegseth is creating a military culture where women will be undermined and unable to advance, she said.

"Leadership establishes the atmosphere," she noted.

Not all women in uniform disagreed with Hegseth's statements.

Republican House Representative Sheri Biggs, who was enlisted as a senior officer in the Air National Guard, said in a statement that she supported the Pentagon chief's initiatives to end "woke" policies from the armed forces.

"Returning to requirements that emphasize excellence and responsibility puts national defense and our servicemembers where they belong — first," Biggs said.

A further GOP representative, Representative Nancy Mace, who graduated from The Citadel military college, posted on online platforms in support of Hegseth.

"Adversaries are not intimidated by inclusion metrics. They dread American firepower," she wrote.