FORT BENNING, Ga. — The Army’s toughest course just got tougher. On April 21, 2026, the first class of U.S. Army Ranger students tackled Fort Benning’s new Bayonet Assault Course, a rugged addition to the Malvesti obstacle course. Integrated into the grueling Ranger Assessment Phase, the high-stress, obstacle-packed site provides a new way to assess a Soldier’s physical and tactical readiness at the very start of the course.
“The Bayonet Assault Course allows us to introduce a level of grit, a level of violence of action, very rapidly into Ranger school,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Patrick Hartung, command sergeant major of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade. “These are qualities they will carry with them as they go into the phases of the course.”
While a massed bayonet charge might be tactically obsolete, the tool itself is not. Inculcating the mindset to use it is useful military training.
Read the whole thing at SoldierSystems.net.