NDA Medical Standards: Height, Eyesight and Subjects by Wing

Your NDA rank is only half of what decides where you train. The other half is eligibility: your Class 12 subjects, your height and your eyesight open or close each wing. UPSC’s (I) 2026 notification printed the full medical standards for the Army, Navy and Air Force; the (II) 2026 notification replaced them with a pointer to a new “Joint Order Manual of Medical Standards for Entry into Armed Forces (1st Edition)”. This guide sets out the headline rules from the printed standards — including a conflict inside the notification on the flying-branch height — and a quick check of which wings are open to you.

NDA & NA (I) 2026 notification, medical annexures; (II) 2026 notification.

The Army wing of NDA accepts a Class 12 pass in any stream. The Navy and Air Force wings of NDA and the Naval Academy’s 10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme require Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. A candidate without PCM can therefore only be allocated to the Army, however high their rank. Candidates who earlier failed the CPSS or PABT remain eligible for Air Force Ground Duty branches if they record their willingness.

The flying-branch conflict. The same (I) 2026 notification prints three figures: “The minimum height requirement for the Flying Branch is 163 cm” in the Army annexure; “Pilots, Flight Test Engineers (FTE) and WSO of Su-30 MKI – 162 cm” in the Air Force paragraph 8(b); and “Minimum height for Flying Branch will be 162.5 cm” in paragraph 9(a). The Air Force annexure is the one that governs flying, and within it the figures are 162 and 162.5. A candidate close to the line should read the current notification and the Joint Order Manual it now refers to, not a single number on a website. Air Force paragraph 9(a), headed for male candidates, also sets a sitting height of 81.5–96.0 cm, a leg length of 99.0–120.0 cm and a maximum thigh length of 64.0 cm.

The pattern is simple: flying is the strictest (no myopia at all, CP-I colour perception), the Navy is next, and the Army and Air Force ground duties are the most tolerant. For the Navy, LASIK is acceptable only under conditions — surgery at 20 or older and at least 12 months before the examination among them — and not for submarine, diving or MARCO branches; for 10+2 and NDA entries to the Army it is not permitted.

Every candidate opting for the Air Force flying branch takes the Computerised Pilot Selection System (CPSS) — once in a lifetime. Failing it bars you from the NDA flying branch, the General Duties (Pilot) branch and the Naval Air Arm. Candidates who fail, or who are untested because they habitually wear glasses, can still be considered for Air Force Ground Duty, the Navy, the Army or the Naval Academy, if they meet those standards.

Weight is judged against weight-for-height charts in which the minimums are absolute and the maximums vary with age. In the Army annexure, a heavier candidate is accepted only with documented national-level body-building, wrestling or boxing, a BMI under 25 and waist limits met; the Navy annexure allows it in exceptional circumstances on grounds of a muscular build, with its own tests. Below 17, the Indian Academy of Paediatrics growth charts apply. Both 2026 notifications list minor defects to fix before the medical — ear wax, a deviated nasal septum, hydrocele or phimosis, being over- or under-weight, an under-sized chest, piles, gynaecomastia, tonsillitis and varicocele. Permanent tattoos are allowed only on the inner face of the forearm (inside of the elbow to the wrist) and the back (dorsal side) of the hand; tribal customary tattoos are considered case by case by the selection centre.

Three checks take ten minutes and save a wasted attempt. Measure your height properly and compare it with the minimum for your wing and region. Get an eye test that reports your refraction in dioptres, not just a line on a chart, and compare it with the table above — especially if you want to fly. And look at any tattoo you have against the inner-forearm and back-of-hand rule. If a standard is close, read the current notification and the Joint Order Manual it refers to rather than a summary.

The medical examination is carried out by a Special Medical Board at a service hospital near the SSB centre. A candidate declared unfit can go to an Appeal Medical Board and then a Review Medical Board. Because UPSC’s final results say “the results of Medical Examination have not been taken into account in preparing these lists”, a recommended candidate can still lose the seat at this stage — which is why it pays to fix minor defects before reporting.