What changed from the ACFT to the AFT

The name and the date

Army Directive 2025-06 is dated 17 April 2025. It says the AFT replaces the Army Combat Fitness Test on 1 June 2025 and that the Army will no longer conduct the ACFT after 31 May 2025. Army Directive 2022-05, titled Army Combat Fitness Test and dated 23 March 2022, was rescinded effective 1 June 2025.

ACFT tests taken for record before 31 May 2025 remain valid under current Army policies. For semi-centralized promotions, a record ACFT was valid until 30 September 2025, and the AFT is used for all promotion actions from 1 October 2025.

The AFT also takes over the ACFT's other jobs. The directive says the AFT replaces the ACFT for all Army purposes in policy, and lists initial military training, professional military education, commissioning, retention, evaluations, promotions, separations and flagging. Initial entry training and professional military education courses that give a fitness test after 31 May 2025 must give the AFT.

The events

The directive lists five AFT events: max deadlift, hand-release push-up, sprint-drag-carry, plank and 2 mile run. The ATP adds that the deadlift is a three-repetition maximum.

The ATP, dated 12 March 2026, replaces its 1 October 2020 edition. Its introduction says the purpose of the revision is to remove the Pose Method and the Standing Power Throw and to change Army Combat Fitness Test to Army Fitness Test.

The documents used for this guide do not list the ACFT's events, so the Standing Power Throw is the only old event they name. The guide to the hand-release push-up and the guide to the sprint-drag-carry cover two of the AFT events in full.

What the documents do not say

The documents used for this guide do not describe the ACFT's scoring or its pass marks, and they give no way to convert an old ACFT score into an AFT score. The AFT tables score each event from 0 to 100 points on their own.

Two standards

Army Directive 2025-06 says the AFT has one fitness standard for all combat specialties and raises fitness standards for all soldiers. In practice there are two pass lines.

The general standard asks for at least 60 points in each event. The combat standard asks for 60 in each event and a total of at least 350. The directive calls the combat standard sex-neutral and age-normed and the general standard normed by sex and age. The guide to the combat and general standards lists the specialties and dates.

New score tables

The directive tasks the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7 with publishing a new scorecard and score standards. The Army Fitness Test Score Tables were approved on 15 May 2025 and took effect on 1 June 2025. Each event scores from 0 to 100 points. The calculator for the Army Fitness Test and the AFT score tables laid out by age group use those tables.

Test frequency

Regular Army, Active Guard Reserve and Reserve soldiers on orders of more than 60 days pass two record AFTs per calendar year, at least 4 months apart. Other Reserve and National Guard soldiers pass one a year, at least 8 months apart. A failed record AFT or ACFT is followed by a retest window of 90 days for the first group and 180 days for the second. The documents read for this guide do not say how the ACFT schedule compared.

Three similar names

The ACFT is the old Army Combat Fitness Test, which ended after 31 May 2025. The AFT is the Army Fitness Test, the record test since 1 June 2025. The CFT is the Combat Field Test, which is for combat specialties only. It has seven events in sequence, no points, and the directive says it is not a substitute for the AFT. Combat specialty soldiers take both kinds of record test.

What came after

On 17 April 2026, Army Directive 2026-07 created the Combat Field Test for combat specialties and added 12D, 89D and 89E to the combat list. It also says evaluation reports show pass or fail and the actual points. The directive lists no change to the AFT events, the score tables, the 60 point minimum per event or the 350 combat total.