WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Officers seeking promotion to one star will face a new Joint Warfighter Evaluation under simulated combat conditions.
- Six evaluation versions will use written assessments, digital simulations, AI driven adversaries and in person wargames.
- The first assessments are expected from February through June 2027, before O-7 promotion boards begin in July.
- The Pentagon has not determined how heavily evaluation results will influence promotion decisions.
Military officers seeking their first star will soon face a new test designed to measure how they make decisions under simulated combat pressure.
The Joint Warfighter Evaluation will supplement the career records, performance reports, command assignments, education and operational experience already considered during promotions.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that eligible Army, Air Force and Marine Corps colonels, along with Navy captains, will undergo the evaluation while screening for promotion to one star.
The assessment will focus on operational planning, decision making and leadership in simulated combat conditions.
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The evaluation, known as the JWE, is part of Hegseth’s broader effort to change how the military assesses and promotes senior leaders. Hegseth said the initiative had been under development for about a year.
According to Hegseth, the goal is to measure whether officers can “fight, adapt, and win” in a chaotic battlespace.
Existing service promotion procedures will remain in place, with the new evaluation providing additional information for promotion decisions.
Internal service plans obtained and reviewed by Fox News describe six versions of the JWE. There is one version for each of the five military services and another administered through the Joint Staff.
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The formats vary significantly by service, according to the report. They include remote written assessments, digital simulations and hours of in person wargaming designed to observe how officers respond to military problems.
Some versions will present officers with a military scenario and require them to make decisions while an AI driven adversary reacts to their moves. Another format will bring officers to a war college, where evaluators will watch as an opposing force counters their decisions during a wargame.
Fox News reported that it reviewed internal documents containing figures and formats for individual services.
The Pentagon had not independently confirmed those service specific details as of Tuesday evening.
The Army plans to assess roughly 900 eligible colonels through a remote written assessment followed by a digital wargame, according to the report.
The Air Force intends to evaluate roughly 1,330 colonels through a two hour online analysis and a one hour interactive simulation.
The Space Force is expected to use a similar format for roughly 125 officers.
The Navy, meanwhile, plans to conduct an in person assessment for roughly 308 captains from the unrestricted line and information warfare communities.
Those Navy officers are expected to travel to the Naval War College.
Their evaluation would include a written assessment lasting three hours, followed by a wargame lasting between two and three hours.
The Marine Corps plans to use a remote evaluation lasting eight hours for up to 175 colonels.
Its AI enabled platform will combine written assessments with situational judgment tests, while comparable details about the Joint Staff version have not been revealed.
The Pentagon has not decided how heavily JWE results will affect promotion decisions. Stuart Scheller, the senior Pentagon adviser leading the effort, told Fox News that existing performance reports will remain the “bedrock” of those decisions.
“The secretary still has judgment based on how it will be weighted in the board, so we haven’t determined.
We’re kind of waiting to see how well this thing is rolled out,” Scheller said.
The first assessments are expected to occur from February through June 2027.
They will come before O-7 promotion boards scheduled from July through September, after which the Pentagon plans to study the first cycle and determine how the evaluation should evolve.
Scheller acknowledged that an exercise cannot perfectly recreate the pressures of combat and said the assessments are expected to change based on lessons from the first cycle.
The Pentagon will also consider how much influence the evaluation should carry on future promotion boards.
“Right now in our current system, we have people that are very good at navigating their careers,” Scheller said.
“We have very good — I want to be clear, very good — military personnel and leaders across the military, but there isn’t a stand-alone function that can truly assess the best military commanders on the battlefield.”
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