Can you wear contact lenses in the infantry?

Hi there,

Thanks for your question.

Whilst wearing glasses or contact lenses in itself does not preclude you from joining any part of the Army, the strength of prescription can. The refractive error must be no more than +6.00 or -6.00 diopter for the infantry.

You are generally advised to wear glasses through basic training and advanced individual training, but after that you can wear contacts for regular duty. It's generally better to wear glasses in the field, as you don't have to deal with keeping your lenses clean and sanitised.

I hope this helps.

Katie

To add to the above, yes you can wear contacts but as mentioned it is safer to wear glasses as 1, there is no messing about if you have glasses on and they fall off, you can simply put them back on and 2, you will be issued glasses that will cover you. For example, if you have an accident with issued frames on you are covered.

Once you get to unit, you can wear contacts if you wish.

J