{"id":181805,"date":"2026-04-27T07:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=181805"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:02:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:02:25","slug":"changing-criteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=181805","title":{"rendered":"Changing criteria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Let’s lead off with the Army:<\/p>\n

The Army Combat Fitness Test for combat-arms soldiers is a pass-fail physical fitness test for folks in “close combat” roles like infantry and artillery.<\/p>\n

Beginning in Spring 2027, soldiers who cannot pass the test will have to reclassify into new jobs or separate from the Army.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative is not just about meeting metrics, but about ensuring our soldiers are prepared for the challenges of modern combat,\u201d said Command Sgt. Maj. Alexander Kupratty, the Pentagon-level leader in charge of Army operations, training, and planning. \u201cThe CFT will be sex neutral and age-neutral, ensuring all soldiers can perform under realistic combat-relevant conditions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Think of it as similar to the Expert Physical Fitness Assessment required for the Expert Infantryman Badge (don’t they need to change that to infantryperson before someone is traumatized now that women can serve in combat arms?\/s), Expert Soldier Badge, and Expert Field Medical Badge. One difference – the soldiers wear their standard field uniform, but unlike for the badge testing, they don’t have to wear helmets and armor.<\/p>\n

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The CFT is graded as a continuous timed event, completed in the following order: 1-mile run, 30 dead-stop pushups, 100-meter sprint, 16 forty-pound sandbag lifts onto a 65-inch platform, 50-meter carry of two 40-pound water cans, a movement drill with a 25-meter high crawl and 25-meter 3-to-5 second rush, and a second 1-mile run.<\/p>\n

To pass, a soldier must complete all the events in succession within 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

The CFT will be required for all soldiers in 24 combat specialties, which include officers, warrant officers, and enlisted specialties in infantry, artillery, armor, combat engineers, and Special Forces, as well as divers and explosive ordnance disposal techs.\u00a0Task&Purpose<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The real interesting part: All leadership will have to pass the test as well. And the test does not replace the Army Physical Fitness test – it is a separate requirement.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"navy-rifle\"<\/p>\n

Moving over to the Navy – they are going to evaluate how well someone does their actual job, versus community activities.<\/p>\n

To move up in the ranks, sailors are currently assessed not only by their job skills, but also for volunteer work and for \u201ccollateral duties\u201d outside their primary rate. Membership in the First Class or Chief Petty Officer Mess is also considered for more senior enlisted sailors.<\/p>\n

An April 13 memo from the Chief of Navy Personnel office said those criteria would now count for less in promotions.<\/p>\n

By 2027, the memo said, enlisted promotions will focus primarily on how well sailors perform their on-the-job duties, whether their rate be in aviation, air traffic control, electronics, or special warfare. The memo is in line with a push by Master Chief Petty Officer John Perryman to emphasize \u201ctechnical mastery\u201d among enlisted sailors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I read the article, seems unlike the Army, which has promotion boards for pay grades E-5 and up, the Navy doesn’t start promotion boards until they get to senior NCO ranks, the Chiefs. Or do they mean Pentagon-level boards like the Army has for senior NCOs?<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the selection boards, instead of focusing on the sailors that are technical experts in their field, what tends to happen a lot is these evals selection boards start to look at: this sailor is good in his field, but what collateral duties are they doing? What other associations are they involved with? Are they involved in the First Class Petty Officer Association? Are they the safety officer?\u201d Simoes said.<\/p>\n

Collateral duties include being part of a ship\u2019s safety committee, overseeing unit physical fitness tests, or managing drug and alcohol programs or sexual assault prevention and response training. Task&Purpose II<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hopefully some of you aging waterlogged types like Ed can maybe fill us in on this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s lead off with the Army: The Army Combat Fitness Test for combat-arms soldiers is a pass-fail physical fitness test for folks in “close combat” roles like infantry and artillery. Beginning in Spring 2027, soldiers who cannot pass the test will have to reclassify into new jobs or separate from the Army. \u201cThis initiative is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":668,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-navy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ozh1-Lil","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}