Maj. Wes Strickland, assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, perform the 50-meter water cans carry, as part of the new Combat Field Test, at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va. The cans weigh 40 pounds each. (Aaron Troutman/U.S. Army)

Soldiers serving in front-line fighting jobs will soon have to pass two annual Army fitness tests after the service rolled out its new combat-focused physical assessment on Wednesday.

The new Combat Field Test consists of seven back-to-back events that soldiers must complete without rest between exercises. It is meant to evaluate their physical preparedness for “the demanding realities of modern combat,” according to the Army. It comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed the military services to adopt more stringent physical fitness standards during the past year as he has advocated for troops to be “fit not fat.”

“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 a statement Wednesday. “This is about readiness, lethality and the well-being of our soldiers.”

The new test is required for all soldiers serving in infantry and armor military occupational specialties, the Special Forces, artillery officers and forward observers, those serving in the explosive ordnance disposal field, engineering officers, combat engineers and Army divers. The test is age and gender neutral, according to the Army.

Soldiers must complete 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, 40-pound water cans; a 50-meter movement drill comprising a 25-meter high crawl and 25-meter 3-to-5 second rush; and then finish with another 1-mile run. It is scored based on the time completed, and must be finished within 30 minutes to pass, according to the Army. 

Unlike the Army’s standard Army Fitness Test, which is given to the entire force, the new test will not be conducted in physical fitness uniforms, said Sgt. Maj. Alexander Kupratty, the senior enlisted leader for the Army’s operations, plans and training directorate. Instead, soldiers must complete the test wearing the service’s combat uniform and combat boots.

The new test is largely based on the Army’s existing expert physical fitness assessment, which is given to soldiers during testing for the Expert Soldier Badge, the Expert Infantry Badge and the Expert Field Medical Badge. The biggest change is that those tests are conducted while wearing body armor and helmets, Kupratty told reporters on Tuesday.

The sergeant major said he has taken the test in combat gear and without it, and he expects that without the added weight of armor it will still challenge soldiers to an appropriate level to gauge their fitness for combat operations.

“We’re trying to establish with this test … a baseline to which we can measure the entirety of our combat arms MOSes,” he said. “The reason we didn’t have the body armor is because we use that for the Expert [badges], which is clearly a higher level. You have to really train extra in order to actually achieve that.”

Active-duty combat arms soldiers will be required to pass the Combat Field Test and the Army Fitness Test each year. National Guard and Reserve soldiers in part-time roles must complete one fitness test each year, alternating annually between the CFT and the AFT, according to the Army.

The new test will roll out to units in the coming weeks, but it will not count against soldiers for the next year, according to the service. Active-duty soldiers will have 365 days to take the test with no adverse actions for failures. Part-time soldiers will have 730 days before the test counts against them.

Soldiers can volunteer for reclassification to a non-combat MOS during that time frame if they determine they will not pass the test, Army officials said. Those who fail the test twice after that first year could be flagged for involuntary separation from the Army or reclassification to a noncombat job, Kupratty said.

“This isn’t just about passing a test; it’s a direct measure of our commitment to readiness and ensuring our warfighters can dominate in any environment,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer, the service’s top enlisted soldier. “We’re asking more of our combat arms soldiers, and this test validates their ability to meet that high standard.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Rose L. Thayer contributed to this report.