More than 80 military occupations are now officially classified as combat arms positions, placing troops in those jobs under tougher physical readiness requirements.
In addition to their regular service fitness test, those personnel must complete a separate combat field assessment.
The updated Department of War physical fitness and body composition policy was issued Aug. 31.
It identifies covered occupations across the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, including infantry soldiers, Navy SEALs, Marine Raiders and Air Force pararescuemen.
Under the instruction, every service must establish its own combat field test for personnel assigned to qualifying occupations.
Those assessments must be capable of being administered “in any environment, at any time, with combat equipment,” reflecting the real physical demands troops could encounter outside a comfortable gym.
The Army has 23 occupations on the combat arms list. They cover infantry, Army Special Forces, combat engineers, military diving, field artillery, fire support, armor, cavalry and explosive ordnance disposal.
The Navy has 19 qualifying designators concentrated across four operational communities.
Those communities are SEALs, special warfare combat crewmen, explosive ordnance disposal personnel and Navy divers, with officers, warrant officers, enlisted sailors and candidates all represented.
The Marine Corps carries the largest roster, with 32 occupations affected by the policy.
Its list includes infantry, reconnaissance, Marine Raiders, artillery, fires, combat engineers, amphibious vehicle crews and explosive ordnance disposal personnel.
Eight Air Force occupations received the combat arms designation.
They include special tactics officers, tactical air control party officers and airmen, combat rescue officers, pararescuemen, combat controllers, special reconnaissance airmen and explosive ordnance disposal personnel.
The Space Force has no occupations designated as combat arms, which is not exactly a shock given its current mission structure.
Guardians therefore remain outside the additional combat field testing requirement established for the other services.
Combat arms troops will also face different scoring requirements on their normal service fitness assessments.
The policy calls for sex neutral standards, “simplified” age normed scoring and male standard requirements, while personnel outside combat arms will continue using sex and age normed scoring systems.
What the instruction means by “simplified” age normed requirements remains unclear.
The War Department referred questions about the practical difference between simplified and regular age adjustments to the individual military services.
The Army Combat Field Test is a seven event, pass fail assessment designed to measure battlefield relevant strength, endurance and movement.
It includes two one mile runs, dead stop pushups, sandbag lifts, a water can carry and combat movement drills, all of which must be finished within 30 minutes.
Beginning in spring 2027, Army personnel in designated combat occupations who repeatedly fail the assessment could be removed from their specialties or separated from the service.
That gives the standards real consequences instead of reducing them to another administrative exercise that can be ignored when inconvenient.
The Navy introduced its own version earlier this year for SEALs, special warfare combat crewmen, explosive ordnance disposal technicians and fleet divers.
Sailors must complete an 800 meter swim, followed by pushups, pullups and a one mile run while wearing a 20 pound weighted vest during the latter events.
Service members who fail applicable fitness standards will enter remedial physical training programs.
Continued failure may trigger administrative action, including separation, and can also produce unfavorable personnel consequences such as being passed over for promotion.
The combat field assessments grew from a September 2025 directive issued by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
He ordered the military services to develop sex neutral physical standards for combat arms personnel and acknowledged that fewer women could qualify for certain physically demanding combat positions.
The policy follows Hegseth’s broader review of military standards after every combat occupation was opened to women in 2015.
Women who previously served in combat arms have argued that they already met gender neutral, occupation specific requirements and disputed claims that standards were lowered on their behalf.
The services must also provide data allowing the War Department to examine fitness outcomes by sex, age, race, ethnicity, rank and military occupation.
That reporting will show whether the new requirements are being applied consistently and whether troops entrusted with combat missions can meet the same battlefield standard when it counts.
