The Army will begin using its new Combat Field Test in Spring 2027, making it a pass-fail requirement for soldiers in 24 close-combat specialties who want to stay in those jobs. Soldiers who cannot pass will have to reclassify into new roles or separate from the service.
The test is built to be sex neutral and age-neutral, and it will be taken in Army Combat Uniforms without helmets or body armor. It is a timed sequence that starts with a 1-mile run, moves through 30 dead-stop pushups, a 100-meter sprint, 16 forty-pound sandbag lifts onto a 65-inch platform, a 50-meter carry with two 40-pound water cans, a movement drill that includes a 25-meter high crawl and a 25-meter 3-to-5 second rush, and ends with a second 1-mile run. To pass, soldiers must finish every event in order within 30 minutes.
Assistant Secretary Alexander Kupratty said the goal is not simply to hit a number on a score sheet but to make sure soldiers are ready for modern combat. He also said the CFT will be sex neutral and age-neutral so every soldier is judged under the same combat-relevant conditions. That matters because the Army is not introducing a brand-new idea so much as expanding a standard it has already been using for its expert badges.
The CFT is an adaptation of the Expert Physical Fitness Assessment, which has been the field fitness requirement for the Expert Infantryman Badge, Expert Soldier Badge, and Expert Field Medical Badge since 2023. Soldiers competing for the infantry badge passed that test 81% of the time against a 26 minute, 30 second cutoff, while those aiming for one of the other two badges passed 90% of the time against a 30-minute limit. The Army says that history gives it a live benchmark for what soldiers can already do before it ties the test to career consequences.
It also gives the service a way to answer a demand set in motion in 2025, when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed all military services to develop sex neutral physical standards for combat jobs. The Army says the new requirement was created to align with that intent, and it will apply to officers, warrant officers and enlisted soldiers in infantry, artillery, armor, combat engineers and Special Forces, along with divers and explosive ordnance disposal technicians. Leadership will have to take the test as well.
Command Sgt. Maj. Nicholas Paske said leadership will have to take this test too and that senior leaders will be held accountable to the same standards as the soldiers they lead. John Grant said there will be a one-year transition period after implementation, and that administrative actions will not begin until 365 days later. During that first year, soldiers who fail will not face those actions, even though the test will already determine whether they remain in their combat specialties.
The Army says many females in combat arms have already earned expert badges under the related assessment, a detail that cuts against the idea that the new standard is untested territory. What changes in Spring 2027 is not the physical demand itself, but the consequence attached to it: from that point on, the CFT becomes the gatekeeper for who can keep doing the Army’s hardest close-combat jobs.