This has been a topic for years. Will the APFT ever change? How fast would it be implimented?

Change is right around the corner.....

I heard that about four times in my career and once or twice in ROTC. I will retire with it right around the corner.

The current APFT is designed to be easily administered with minimal personnel, equipment and site requirements. It wasn't intended to be something that affected careers either, just something for the commanders to see what you can do, but the second it had a score system with numbers, it easily became a competitive event for some, and a standard measuring stick for others.
The way I see it, there are plenty of dirtbags who can pass the APFT, and no amount of changing the APFT is going to change that, just make it harder for us to actually test people.

Seems to be evolving in each branch of the military.

in 1973 to 1977 there was a 5 event Army PT Test... push ups, sit ups, run-dodge-jump, horiznal ladder, 3 mile run... the it went to push ups, sit ups, with 2 mile run
to that ever it is now...

All of the new ideas are great sounding.....but then comes the realization that they have to come up with some sort of alternate events and then figure out how the grading standards are going to be for those alternate events. What kind of changes do you recommend?

I have read many of the comments on this subject and wow how things have changed since 1989 when I got out. I had one of those MOS's that didn't have great potential for promotion to E-5. I was a 44E machinist once they did away with the Spec 5 rank the cutoff score rarely went below 998 for that MOS. So I spent 4 years of my 8 years on active duty as a E-4(P) with nearly 900 points when I got out. A 12B was getting promoted with a score of 450 points. I knew and understood why as well. Anyway my point is that If I remember correctly if I would have made my cutoff score and if I hadn't passed my PT test and qualified on my last firing range with my M16A2 I still would not get promoted until I did assuming that I still made the cutoff score when I became eligible. When I was in everyone was a soldier first then comes your primary job. When I was in the 5th engr. BN. I still had to pass the soldier's stakes test every year that all soldiers E-6 and below had to pass which was mainly basic soldier things like dawning your gas mask. taking your weapon apart and reassemble it in a certain amount of time, first aid. as examples. Basically if you couldn't soldier you couldn't get promoted even to E-4.

BLUF: Probably not in the foreseeable future. The current 3 event APFT measures the basic fitness levels that a member of the Army (as decided by the leadership of the Army) need to possess in order to be minimally fit to perform the general tasks of "Soldiering". It was determined that the Pushup, Sit up and the Two mile run were enough to measure Upper body Strength and endurance, Core strength and endurance, and Cardio-vascular strength and endurance. Better than the previous 5 event PT test. The current PT test requires no additional equipment and special facilities (think the aforementioned 5 event test) to execute and is (in the current way of thinking) a valid GENERAL measure of overall fitness. There are being developed a series of MOS related fitness tests to measure Job specific requirements, and these are currently being evaluated. It is the ONLY test in the military where the minimum standard is 60% (every other test requires a minimum of 70% to pass). Will it go away? I doubt it. Will the Standards change? Most certainly. As the Army becomes more integrated and the MOS specific tests come into force, the 3 Event PT test may lose on importance in the promotion system or the two scores may be combined in some fashion. As a final note, be happy- at least you don't have to do the horizontal ladder or the inverted crawl anymore....

If it ain't broke don't fix it! About 1982 in Korea, we got rid of the old Army PT test. It took more than half a day for a company to administer and it took about 25 soldiers to grade and run it. A serious waste of good time. We would do half of it go to lunch and come back to finish after eating, always a bad idea. Some Commanders made us skip lunch to finish the event faster. Events were #1. Run, dodge, and jump. #2. Horizontal ladder. #3. Crab Crawl. #4. Chin ups. #5. Push ups #6. Sit ups #7. Two mile run. Some of you vets who were in prior to 1980 did I leave any events out?

I feel the need to be cautious here as I am unfamiliar with the army PFT. Nonetheless, I'll stick a toe in the water. Also, throughout my time in the Marines I only had to take our full PFT once or twice because of significant injuries that led to my medical retirement (as I write this I am just out of hospital from my 11th or 12th surgery).

I always saw the PFT as an instrument to drive Marines to maintain physical fitness. And there was a direct connection to being a career Marine as the score was part of a total value used for promotion. The true measure of physical fitness was in the unit runs, unit calisthenics, and other organized athletic activities. That was when the Gunney got to see who was lagging behind and needed some extra "instruction," such as being ordered to participate in a headquarters run physical fitness program.

I was part of a recent study looking at alternatives. A soldiers score on the current APFT has a very poor correlation with his or her ability to perform warrior tasks and battle drills (once TRADOC lifts the embargo on the data, I'll be able to publish it). TRADOC has chosen to focus on implementing the occupational performance assessment test (OPAT) at MEPS first, my contacts suggest that we may see a change in the APFT sometime this FY.