With a new focus on functional combat fitness training, the U.S. Army Infantry School has modified the physical fitness assessment for students attending the Ranger Course.

Formally known as the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment, the assessment will still require students to perform a 5-mile run and six chin-ups, but it no longer includes situps and pushups, according to a Maneuver Center of Excellence news release.

Previously, Ranger Course physical assessments consisted of 49 pushups, 59 situps, a 5-mile run in under 40 minutes and six chin-ups. Now modeled after the physical fitness requirements to obtain an Expert Infantry Badge, the upgraded assessment will be implemented with the class that starts April 21, the release said.

“Pushups and situps are no longer the Army standard,” Brig. Gen. Phil Kiniery, commandant of the U.S. Army Infantry School, said in the release.

The Ranger Course, known informally as Ranger School, is a 62-day small-unit tactics and leadership course under the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia. Only about half of the students who start the course will graduate, according to the Army.

“The previous physical assessment was based on a 70-percent minimum standard for 18- to 20-year-olds as defined in the old Army Physical Fitness Test,” Kiniery said in the release. “Our new assessment is better aligned with the Army’s focus on training functional fitness and is tailored to help our cadre better assess student potential to successfully complete the Ranger Course safely.”

A couple of events in the new Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment are modified from the Expert Infantryman Badge Physical Fitness Assessment and “amplify the Army initiative of holistic health and fitness,” the release said.

The assessment has two sets of events. On Day 1 of the Ranger Course, students, wearing the Army Combat Uniform and boots, will have 14 minutes to execute seven tasks.

They are an 800-meter run; 30 dead-stop pushups; a 100-meter sprint; 16 40-pound sandbag lifts onto a 68-inch platform; a 50-meter farmers’ carry with two 40-pound 5-gallon Army water cans; a 50-meter movement drill consisting of a 25-meter high crawl and 25-meter 3- to 5-second rush; and an 800-meter run.

The 800-meter runs are modified from the 1-mile run required for the Expert Infantryman Badge Physical Fitness Assessment.

After completing the seven tasks, students will break and change into weather-appropriate Army Physical Fitness Uniforms for a 4-mile run with a minimum standard of 32 minutes and 6 chin-ups, according to the release.

The Infantry School considers this an operational tryout, Kiniery explained, as Ranger Course cadre will continue to assess the minimum time standard to ensure it mitigates risk.

“The first part of the assessment mimics an operation in that students are moving toward a set of objectives, completing the objectives, and then maneuvering away from the objective,” Kiniery said in the release. “This supports functional fitness and echoes the intensity of the events Ranger candidates will complete during the course.”