The US Army Ranger School has introduced a new bayonet obstacle course at Fort Benning, Georgia, expanding its demanding combat preparatory pipeline.
The US Army Ranger School has introduced a new bayonet obstacle course at Fort Benning, Georgia, expanding its demanding combat preparatory pipeline.
The track debuted at an in-house competition last April, with the initial group of students completing it during the Ranger Assessment Phase later that month.
Throughout the training lane, soldiers must pass through smoke, trenches, tunnels, and walls before attacking target dummies with bayonets attached to their firearms.
Fort Benning officials said construction of the site took less than a year, with the army’s Directorate of Public Works and Training Support Center helping deliver the site ahead of schedule.
The range incorporates modern silicone targets designed to withstand repeated strikes and harsh weather conditions.
New ‘Level of Grit’
The military highlighted that the obstacle course is designed to test physical endurance and mental readiness while applying close-combat fundamentals in environments where other equipment may not be available or effective.
“The Bayonet Assault Course allows us to introduce a level of grit, a level of violence of action, very rapidly into Ranger school,” said Patrick Hartung, command sergeant major of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade, which oversees the program.
“If all technology fails, [Ranger students] will have the fundamentals,” he added. “This is why we have them navigate terrain, close with and destroy the enemy with a bayonet.”
The US Army previously phased out bayonet-focused instruction from basic training in 2010, replacing it with hand-to-hand combat training viewed as more relevant to modern warfare.
The US Marine Corps, however, has continued bayonet instruction to reinforce small arms proficiency, reflecting its doctrine that every troop is a rifleman.
