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Army leaders have implemented a new seven-event fitness test for Soldiers in combat-arms jobs, the service announced last week in a release.
The Combat Field Test is designed to align fitness standards with the demands of combat, service officials said.
It is field assessment. Those tested will wear the Army Combat Uniform, combat boots, a brown T-shirt and no headgear.
The test’s seven events, which are to be conducted in sequence and scored on total time, are a 1-mile run, 30 dead-stop pushups, a 100-meter sprint, 16 lifts of a 40-pound sandbag onto a 65-inch platform, a 50-meter carry of two 5-gallon water cans weighing 40 pounds each, a 50-meter movement drill comprising a 25-meter high crawl and a 25-meter 3- to 5-second rush, and concluding with a second 1-mile run, the release says.
The CFT does not replace the Army Fitness Test. Combat specialty Soldiers in the active component and reserve-component troops on active-duty orders for 365 days or more are now required to pass one of each test annually.
All other Army National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers in combat specialties will take one fitness test per calendar year, alternating between the AFT and CFT.
“The Combat Field Test is a critical step forward in ensuring our soldiers serving in the most physically demanding specialties have the specific fitness required to dominate on the modern battlefield,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in the release. “This is about readiness, lethality and the well-being of our Soldiers.”
Combat specialties listed in the secretary’s April 17 memorandum include infantry officers and Soldiers, engineer officers and combat engineers; divers; field artillery officers and fire support specialists; Special Forces officers, warrant officers and NCOs; armor officers, Bradley Fighting Vehicle crewmen, cavalry scouts and M1 armor crewmen; and explosive ordnance disposal officers and specialists.
Soldiers who fail the sex- and age-neutral CFT fail the assessment during the first year and thereafter will have to reclassify into a different military occupational specialty or leave the Army, according to Driscoll’s memorandum.
—By John Goheen
