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Article
Modernizing the Navy’s Physical Readiness Test: Introducing the Navy General Fitness Test and Navy Operational Fitness Test
The Sport Journal
  • David D. Peterson, Cedarville University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-23-2015
Abstract

The lessons learned from recent combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown operational commanders that the military fitness tests currently used by the different services are inadequate in terms of assessing the physical fitness required for combat. Currently, only the U.S. Marine Corps employs a combat specific fitness test; although the U.S. Army and Air Force have recognized the need and rationale for one as well. Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy continues to lag behind the other services in terms of modernizing its physical fitness training and testing programs. The purpose of this article is four-fold: 1) justify the need for service-specific combat fitness tests, 2) discuss past and current examples service-specific combat fitness tests, 3) introduce a revised general fitness test intended to replace the current Navy Physical Readiness Test (PRT), and 4) propose an operational fitness test that could be adopted and employed by the U.S. Navy.

Disciplines
Keywords
  • Physical fitness,
  • fitness tests,
  • fitness assessments,
  • combat readiness,
  • operational readiness,
  • Combat Fitness Test,
  • Physical Readiness Test
Comments

The PDF of this article is reproduced here with permission from the United States Sport's Academy's The Sport Journal. Originally published July 23, 2015, the article may be viewed here.

Citation Information
David D. Peterson. "Modernizing the Navy’s Physical Readiness Test: Introducing the Navy General Fitness Test and Navy Operational Fitness Test" The Sport Journal Vol. 2015 Iss. July 23, 2015 (2015) p. 1 - 9
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/david-peterson/8/