Air Assault School: Requirements and How to Train

Soldier rappelling down a training tower

Air Assault School is one of the Army's most respected schools, often called the ten toughest days in the Army. It teaches soldiers to conduct helicopter-borne operations, and the coveted Air Assault badge is earned by only a fraction of those who start. Here is what the course involves and how to train so you are not one of the many who wash out.

What is Air Assault School?

The course runs about ten days and is built around three phases, each roughly three days long: Combat Assault, Sling Load, and Rappel. It is physically and mentally demanding from the very first hour, and only around 45 percent of a class typically graduates.

Soldiers rucking in a line on a road at dawn

Zero Day

Before the phases even begin, you have to survive Zero Day. It starts with a demanding obstacle course, and anyone who fails an obstacle is dropped. Survivors then run two miles in boots at a 10-minute-per-mile pace, and you must finish inside 20 minutes to be enrolled. Around 15 percent of the class is gone by the end of that first day.

The three phases

Phase 1, Combat Assault: aircraft orientation and aeromedical evacuation, plus a written test and a hand-and-arm signals test. You need at least 70 percent on the written exam and seven of ten signals to advance.
Phase 2, Sling Load: inspecting and preparing loads to be carried under helicopters. The timed sling-load inspection test fails a lot of soldiers.
Phase 3, Rappel: rappels from the 34-foot tower and from a hovering Blackhawk, with and without combat equipment.

The 12-mile ruck

On graduation morning, you have to complete a 12-mile foot march with a rucksack in under three hours. Miss the cutoff and you do not graduate, no matter how well you did on everything else. This is where being undertrained on rucking ends dreams.

How to train for Air Assault School

Build a rucking base over months so 12 miles under load is routine, not a shock. Sharpen your two-mile run so the Zero Day standard is easy, and train grip and upper-body strength for the obstacle course and rappels. Round it out with work-capacity circuits so you can perform while tired. Rucking and running are the two things that decide most outcomes here.