New fitness test for Canadian Armed Forces

New fitness test for all 3 branches (Air Force, Army, Navy) of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Test Component	Description	Standard
Sandbag Lift	30 consecutive lifts of a 20 kg sandbag to a height above 91.5 cm, alternating between left and right sandbags separated by 1.25 m.	3 minutes 30 seconds​
​Intermittent Loaded Shuttles	​Using the 20 m lines, complete ten shuttles (1 shuttle = 20 m there, 20 m back), alternating between a loaded shuttle with a 20 kg sandbag and an unloaded shuttle, for a total of 400 m.​	5 minutes 21 seconds​
20 metre Rushes​	​Starting from prone, complete two shuttle sprints (1 shuttle = 20 m there, 20 m back) dropping to a prone position every 10m, for a total of 80 m.​	​51 seconds​
Sandbag Drag​	Carry one 20 kg sandbag and pull four on the floor over 20 m without stopping.​	Completed without stopping​

General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, seemed to deliberately do the test slower than Peter MacKay, the Defence Minister.

But anyway, it seems like a useful combat-oriented fitness test, unlike our IPPT, which is modified from the NAPFA test that we first did in school.

How much is enough?

I've always wondered; how do we have a meaningful debate on how much to spend on defence?

For example, if I were to say, can we stop buying additional F-15SGs, some would naturally say something like "You can't put a price tag on peace".

But we all know that this is not sustainable in the long run.

We have to be able to say, based on our projections, X amount of weaponry will be more than sufficient.

It doesn't help that much of what we need to know, to decide on that X amount, is off-limits due to Operations Security (OPSEC).