The Army's New Combat Field Test: All 7 Events, the 30-Minute Standard, and What Failing Costs You

// 01Seven events, one clock

The CFT is a continuous sequence. No event is individually timed and no event is skippable. The directive’s words:

The CFT is designed as a pass or fail test (no points). The CFT is a continuous event where no individual event is timed; instead, the cumulative time to complete all events in succession is used to determine whether a Soldier passes or fails. AD 2026-07, para 4a(2)

The sequence, verbatim from para 4a(3):

• 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 5-gallon Army water cans (each weighing 40 pounds)
• 50-meter movement drill: a 25-meter high crawl, then a 25-meter, 3–5 second rush
• A second 1-mile run

Uniform is the ACU top and bottom, brown t-shirt, combat boots, no headgear (para 4a(4)). And note the termination rule in the same paragraph: if you cannot complete an event, the test ends right there and records as a failure. There is no pushing past the sandbags to salvage a time.

// 02The 30-minute standard, and where it actually lives

Here is a detail almost nobody quoting this test gets right: the 30-minute standard is not in the directive. AD 2026-07 says only that “the Deputy Chief of Staff (DCS), G-3/5/7 will publish the time standard” (para 4a(2)). The number comes from the Army’s official announcement of April 22, 2026:

Soldiers must complete the test in 30 minutes or less while wearing the Army Combat Uniform, combat boots and a brown T-shirt, with no cover. U.S. Army announcement, army.mil, 22 April 2026

Thirty minutes is the official public standard. But because the directive delegates the number to G-3/5/7, the implementing guidance is where any refinement would appear. If your unit briefs a different figure, ask what they are citing.

One more line from the announcement worth knowing whole: “All Soldiers in designated combat roles must meet the same passing criteria, regardless of age or sex.” No age brackets. No alternate events. The directive is explicit that modifications are not available even on profile (para 4a(8)).

// 03The 24 specialties on the hook

Enclosure 2 lists the combat specialties. If you hold one of these, the CFT is now an annual requirement:

• Infantry: 11A, 11B, 11C, 11Z
• Engineers: 12A, 12B, and 12D (Army Diver)
• Field Artillery: 13A and 13F. The rest of the 13-series is not listed.
• Special Forces: 18A, 180A, 18B, 18C, 18D, 18E, 18F, 18Z
• Armor and Cav: 19A, 19C, 19D, 19K, 19Z
• EOD: 89D and 89E

Divers and EOD are new to the combat-specialty designation entirely: para 4b(2) adds 12D, 89D, and 89E to the list and binds them to the AFT combat standard in AR 350-1 as well. If you are in one of those three, you picked up two harder standards in one directive.

Frequency: Regular Army, AGR, and Reserve Component Soldiers on active-duty orders of 365 days or more take one record CFT and one record AFT every year, minimum 4 months apart (paras 4a(1), 4a(6)). All other RC combat-specialty Soldiers alternate: AFT one calendar year, CFT the next, minimum 8 months between record tests, with an extra record AFT allowed inside that window for promotion or schooling. And there is no prerequisite between the tests; you do not have to pass one to take the other.

// 04The clock that matters more than the stopwatch

The directive builds a one-year on-ramp, and then the consequences arrive on a schedule:

• Now through roughly April 2027: the implementation period. “No administrative action will be taken solely because of a failed CFT or a permanent profile that prevents a Soldier from taking the CFT” (para 4a(9)). The announcement adds that during this phase a Soldier who concludes they cannot meet the standard may request voluntary reclassification to a non-combat specialty.
• Full implementation (365 days from the directive): a CFT failure now draws a flag and enrollment in reconditioning training per FM 7-22 (para 4a(10)(a)), with a mandatory retest within 90 days (180 for RC not on qualifying orders) (para 4a(10)(b)).
• Fail the retest: the commander initiates reclassification or utilization actions unless you hold an approved waiver (para 4a(10)(d)).
• Two consecutive failures: enlisted Soldiers who refuse to extend or reenlist to reclassify, or who cannot reclassify, are subject to involuntary separation under AR 635-200 chapter 13 (AR 135-178 chapter 9 for RC) (para 4a(10)(f)). Officers face elimination under AR 600-8-24 para 4-2(a) (AR 135-175 para 2-12 for non-AD) if ineligible for branch transfer (para 4a(10)(g)).
• Not taking it doesn’t dodge it: failing to take a record CFT within 12 months of full implementation is itself a flag, unless a temporary profile prevents it (para 4a(10)(c)).

Permanent profiles run on a separate track: a permanent profile that prevents any primary AFT event makes you ineligible for the CFT and triggers a reclassification evaluation, unless the GCMCA or first general officer in your chain grants a waiver, which is reassessed annually (para 4a(7)). Temporary profiles, including pregnancy and postpartum, follow FM 7-22 until you can test (para 4a(8)).

// 05The two lines that change your NCOER

Buried in the administrative paragraphs are the two provisions that will outlast every gym debate about sandbag technique. First, for combat specialties:

Soldiers in combat specialties listed in enclosure 2 are required to include CFT pass/fail or waiver on evaluations with a thru date 18 months after publication of this directive or later. AD 2026-07, para 4a(10)(e)

That lands on evaluations with thru dates from roughly October 2027 onward. Your CFT result, or your waiver, becomes a permanent line on the record that boards read.

Second, and this one applies to every Soldier, not just the 24 specialties:

All evaluation reports will reflect both pass/fail and actual points earned for the record AFT. AD 2026-07, para 4b(1)

The days of an evaluation quietly noting “passed” are ending. Your actual AFT score goes on the report. For raters and senior raters, physical readiness just became a number on paper twice over, and evaluations that vaguely gesture at fitness will read weaker next to ones that state the score.

// 06What nobody can tell you yet

The G-3/5/7 implementing guidance is where the remaining details live: the published time standard in its final regulatory form, grader instructions, and event-execution standards (what exactly counts as a dead-stop pushup rep, sandbag lift technique, and so on). The directive itself does not define rep standards, and anyone confidently reciting them today is quoting a unit SOP or guessing. When that guidance publishes, this post gets updated the same week. This directive also self-rescinds once the revised regulations publish (para 6), so the cites will eventually move into AR 350-1; we will track that too.

Related reading: the CFT is one of two standards overhauls this year. The other is AD 2026-13, which killed the tape test and replaced all of body composition with a single waist-to-height ratio. The 7-day buffer between a fitness test and a WHtR measurement in that directive applies to the CFT as well.

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