The AFT Combat Standard: Where the Extra 50 Points Cost Least
Pass all five Army Fitness Test events at the floor and you score 300. The combat standard asks for 350. Those 50 points have to come from somewhere, and the scoring scales make some of them far cheaper than others. I ran the official tables to find out which.
What I ran
The AFT calculator on this site carries the scoring scales from the Army’s published PDF, approved 15 May 2025 and effective 1 June 2025. I took those tables and pulled the performance required at 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 points for all five events, across all ten age bands, for both columns. That is 500 figures.
Then I asked one question of each event: moving from 60 points to 70, how much better do you have to get? Expressing it as a percentage lets a deadlift sit next to a two-mile run without comparing pounds to minutes.
The answer is the two-mile run, by a long way
| Event | Age | 60 points | 70 points | Change needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two-Mile Run | 17-21 | 19:57 | 18:35 | 6.9% harder |
| Two-Mile Run | 27-31 | 19:45 | 18:23 | 6.9% harder |
| Two-Mile Run | 37-41 | 20:44 | 18:35 | 10.4% harder |
| Sprint-Drag-Carry | 37-41 | 2:41 | 2:14 | 16.8% harder |
| Sprint-Drag-Carry | 17-21 | 2:28 | 2:03 | 16.9% harder |
| Sprint-Drag-Carry | 27-31 | 2:32 | 2:06 | 17.1% harder |
| 3-Repetition Maximum Deadlift | 27-31 | 150 lb | 190 lb | 26.7% harder |
| 3-Repetition Maximum Deadlift | 17-21 | 150 lb | 200 lb | 33.3% harder |
| Plank | 17-21 | 1:30 | 2:02 | 35.6% harder |
| 3-Repetition Maximum Deadlift | 37-41 | 140 lb | 190 lb | 35.7% harder |
| Plank | 27-31 | 1:20 | 1:52 | 40.0% harder |
| Plank | 37-41 | 1:10 | 1:42 | 45.7% harder |
| Hand-Release Push-Up | 27-31 | 14 reps | 26 reps | 85.7% harder |
| Hand-Release Push-Up | 17-21 | 15 reps | 28 reps | 86.7% harder |
| Hand-Release Push-Up | 37-41 | 12 reps | 24 reps | 100.0% harder |
Shaving 6.9% off your two-mile run buys ten points. Adding 86.7% to your push-ups buys the same ten. That is a twelvefold difference in what the scales ask of you for identical reward.
For a 19-year-old man the run goes from 19:57 to 18:35. Eighty-two seconds across two miles, which is about 41 seconds a mile. The push-ups go from 15 to 28 reps in the same trade.
It gets starker in the older bands. At 37 to 41 the push-up requirement doubles, from 12 reps to 24, for those same ten points. The run over the same stretch asks for 10.4% off your time.
Where the 50 points are cheapest to find
Nobody scores 60 on everything and then fixes one event. The useful reading of that table is the running order:
- Two-mile run, around 7% per ten points, is the cheapest place to look
- Sprint-drag-carry, around 17%, is second
- Deadlift and plank sit in the middle, 27% to 46%
- Hand-release push-ups, 86% to 100%, is the most expensive point on the test
A soldier 50 points short of the combat total who spends the next eight weeks on push-ups has picked the hardest available route. The same eight weeks on the run and the sprint-drag-carry covers more ground for less work. The five events guide covers what each one is testing.
Two caveats belong here. The combat standard still requires 60 points in every event, so you cannot abandon an event to chase points elsewhere. These percentages also describe the scoring scale, not your body: a soldier who is already a strong runner and a weak presser will find the push-ups cheaper in practice, whatever the table says.
The pass marks themselves
| Age | MDL | HRP | SDC | PLK | 2MR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17-21 | 150 lb | 15 reps | 2:28 | 1:30 | 19:57 |
| 22-26 | 150 lb | 14 reps | 2:31 | 1:25 | 19:45 |
| 27-31 | 150 lb | 14 reps | 2:32 | 1:20 | 19:45 |
| 32-36 | 140 lb | 13 reps | 2:36 | 1:15 | 20:44 |
| 37-41 | 140 lb | 12 reps | 2:41 | 1:10 | 20:44 |
| 42-46 | 140 lb | 11 reps | 2:45 | 1:10 | 22:04 |
| 47-51 | 140 lb | 11 reps | 2:53 | 1:10 | 22:04 |
| 52-56 | 140 lb | 10 reps | 3:00 | 1:10 | 22:50 |
| 57-61 | 140 lb | 10 reps | 3:12 | 1:10 | 23:36 |
| 62+ | 140 lb | 10 reps | 3:16 | 1:10 | 23:36 |
| Age | MDL | HRP | SDC | PLK | 2MR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17-21 | 120 lb | 11 reps | 3:15 | 1:30 | 22:55 |
| 22-26 | 120 lb | 11 reps | 3:15 | 1:25 | 22:45 |
| 27-31 | 120 lb | 11 reps | 3:15 | 1:20 | 22:45 |
| 32-36 | 120 lb | 11 reps | 3:22 | 1:15 | 22:50 |
| 37-41 | 120 lb | 10 reps | 3:27 | 1:10 | 22:59 |
| 42-46 | 120 lb | 10 reps | 3:42 | 1:10 | 23:15 |
| 47-51 | 120 lb | 10 reps | 3:51 | 1:10 | 23:30 |
| 52-56 | 120 lb | 10 reps | 4:03 | 1:10 | 24:00 |
| 57-61 | 120 lb | 10 reps | 4:48 | 1:10 | 24:48 |
| 62+ | 120 lb | 10 reps | 4:48 | 1:10 | 25:00 |
The deadlift barely moves across forty-five years
Reading down those columns turned up something I did not expect. Most events relax as the age bands climb. The deadlift does not.
For men the 60-point deadlift goes from 150 lb at 17 to 21 down to 140 lb at 62 and over. That is a 6.7% concession across forty-five years. For women it moves by nothing at all: 120 lb at every single age band, from 17 to 62 and beyond.
Compare that with the sprint-drag-carry, which relaxes 32.4% for men and 47.7% for women over the same span. A 62-year-old woman gets an extra 93 seconds on that event against her 19-year-old counterpart. On the deadlift she gets nothing.
Hand-release push-ups relax 33.3% for men and 9.1% for women. The two-mile run gives men 18.3% and women 9.1%.
Whether that is the right call is a question for the people who wrote the standard. What the numbers show is that the Army treats absolute strength as something it expects you to keep, while conceding speed and work capacity steadily as you age.
What to do with this
Put your own figures into the calculator first and find out where you sit. If you are chasing the combat total, read your scores next to the table above and ask where ten points costs you least from where you are standing today. For most soldiers that question answers itself at the two-mile run.
Body composition is assessed separately and on its own schedule. Clearing the fitness test does nothing for your waist measurement, which the Army body composition calculator handles, and the current body fat standards explain what replaced the tape test in July 2026.
Citing these figures
These percentages come out of the Army’s own scoring tables, so anyone can rerun them and get the same answer. Use them where they are useful:
The Fitness Calculator (2026). The AFT Combat Standard: Where the Extra 50 Points Are Cheapest. https://thefitnesscalculator.com/aft-combat-standard-50-points/
The single figure worth carrying away is the twelvefold gap: for a male aged 17 to 21, ten points costs 6.9% off a two-mile run or 86.7% more hand-release push-ups.
Every figure above comes out of the published scales. Your unit and the current regulation decide what applies to you, and this page carries no authority over either.