Preparing for RASP
The 75th Ranger Regiment’s assessment and selection. Not Ranger School — a different course, run by a different organisation, for a different reason.
RASP is not Ranger School
This confuses people constantly, so: RASP is the 75th Ranger Regiment’s assessment and selection — how you get into the Regiment. Ranger School is a leadership course at Fort Benning that anyone in the Army can be sent to, and that plenty of people who have never served in the Regiment attend. Many Rangers do both. They are different things, run by different organisations, for different reasons.
RASP 1 is for junior enlisted soldiers. RASP 2 is for senior NCOs and officers. This page is about RASP 1.
The Ranger Fitness Test
| Event | Standard | Arrive at |
|---|---|---|
| T push-ups, 2 min | 41 | 55–70 |
| Plank | 2:35 | 3:15–4:00 |
| Five-mile run | 40:00 | 37:30 or better |
| Pull-ups | 6 | 12–18 |
| 12-mile foot march, 35 lb + weapon | 3:00 | 2:45 or better |
Hitting the left column exactly is a bad plan. Everything at RASP is done repeatedly, on accumulated fatigue, and a candidate whose five-mile is exactly 40:00 rested does not have a 40:00 five-mile on day nine.
The rest of it
- Water survival. Being comfortable in water in uniform. Entirely trainable beforehand and a genuine gate.
- Foot marches, repeatedly, at distance, with a real load.
- Land navigation, day and night.
- Marksmanship and standards — a large part of RASP is whether you can meet a standard exactly, under pressure, without being told twice.
- Assessment of character. Attention to detail, how you take correction, whether you help the man next to you when nobody is watching.
How to train for it
- Run five miles well. The five-miler is the run that matters here, and it responds to weekly long runs plus one tempo session. Training only two-mile speed is the usual mistake.
- Ruck with a real load. 35 lb plus a weapon is the standard; train at that and above it for distance.
- Pull-ups and push-ups as volume, most days, submaximal, rather than one max set a week.
- Get in a pool in uniform if you can arrange it safely. Water confidence is cheap to buy in advance and expensive to lack.
- Practise attention to detail. This sounds soft and is not. Packing exactly as instructed, being where you were told, hitting a time exactly — those habits are assessed.
Twelve weeks, built around the RFT
Lensatic’s RASP plan trains the five events and the foot march together rather than in isolation, with GPS tracking for the runs and rucks, per-mile splits, and guided sessions for the strength and calisthenic work. The standards board shows your numbers against the Ranger Fitness Test as they come in.
See the plans Ranger SchoolQuestions
What is the difference between RASP and Ranger School?
RASP is how you join the 75th Ranger Regiment. Ranger School is an Army leadership course open far more widely. Different organisations, different purposes; many Rangers attend both.
How long is RASP 1?
About eight weeks.
What is the RFT standard?
As published by Regiment recruiting: 41 T push-ups, a 2:35 plank, five miles in 40:00 and six pull-ups, plus a 12-mile foot march under three hours with a 35-lb ruck and weapon.
Do I need to be able to swim?
Yes. Water survival is part of the assessment and being uncomfortable in water in uniform is a solvable problem you should solve beforehand.
Is this official?
No. This is preparation guidance published by Deadlift Digital LLC, drawn from 75th Ranger Regiment recruiting’s published standards. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Army or the Department of Defense.