RAF Fitness Test: the 2.4km pass times by age and gender

Every Royal Air Force applicant has to pass the Pre-Joining Fitness Test (PJFT) before starting basic training. It is a timed 2.4km run, usually on a treadmill at a gym near you, and the time you have to beat depends on your age and gender. This guide gives the RAF's published pass times in full, explains where the test sits in the application, and sets out how to prepare properly.

ForcesReady is an independent practice resource. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the RAF, the Royal Navy or the Ministry of Defence. Standards are set by the RAF and change over time — always confirm the current requirement on the RAF's own fitness page and with your careers adviser.

What the RAF Pre-Joining Fitness Test involves

The PJFT is a 2.4km run (about a mile and a half) against the clock. It is normally carried out on a treadmill at a local gym, which means no hills, no weather and no pacing yourself against other people — just you and a number. The RAF notes that in exceptional circumstances the Multi-Stage Fitness Test (the bleep test) or a Rockport Walk may be used instead, and your recruiter will tell you if that applies to you.

It is a minimum standard, not a target. Turning up able to run the time exactly, on a good day, is a plan with no margin in it — and test day is rarely a good day.

The official RAF 2.4km pass times

These are the RAF's published pass times. Find your age band and read across.

Men

• 15–16: 13 minutes 52 seconds
• 17–29: 13 minutes 20 seconds
• 30–34: 13 minutes 49 seconds
• 35–39: 14 minutes 14 seconds
• 40–44: 14 minutes 46 seconds
• 45–49: 15 minutes 17 seconds
• 50–54: 15 minutes 53 seconds

Women

• 15–16: 16 minutes 22 seconds
• 17–29: 15 minutes 48 seconds
• 30–34: 16 minutes 14 seconds
• 35–39: 16 minutes 44 seconds
• 40–44: 17 minutes 22 seconds
• 45–49: 17 minutes 57 seconds
• 50–54: 18 minutes 34 seconds

Note that the standard for 15–16 year olds is slightly slower than for 17–29, and then eases progressively from 30 onwards. The hardest band is 17–29, which is the age most applicants fall into.

Officers and aircrew sit a second fitness test

If you are applying to be an officer, you will do a further fitness test at RAF Cranwell as part of a familiarisation visit, and that one includes the Multi-Stage Fitness Test. The standards for it are given to you during the visit. That sits alongside selection at the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre, which is a separate and more demanding stage than the one most applicants go through.

What happens if you fail

Failing the PJFT is not usually the end of an application, but it does delay everything behind it — and every stage behind it has its own queue. The sensible approach is to treat your first attempt as the only one you want: test yourself honestly at home first, and only book when you are comfortably inside the time rather than hoping to scrape it.

How to train for it

The 2.4km is short enough that people underestimate it and long enough that you cannot sprint it. Eight to twelve weeks of consistent work is the realistic window; two weeks of panic is not.

• Three sessions a week, not five. Three you will actually do beats a five-session plan you abandon in a fortnight.
• One interval session. Something like six times two minutes hard with two minutes walking between. This is what moves your time.
• One longer, easy run. Thirty to forty-five minutes at a pace you could hold a conversation at. It builds the engine.
• One run at test pace. Practise the actual distance at the actual speed so you know what it feels like at 1.5km with 900 metres to go.
• Train on a treadmill sometimes. The test is usually on one, and a treadmill feels different from a road or a track. Do not let the first time be on the day.
• Rest in the last week. Fitness is banked by then. Arriving tired costs you more than one extra session gains.

The RAF publishes its own 12-week fitness plan for people starting from scratch, and it is worth following if you are new to running.

Knowing the standard is half of it; knowing how far off it you are is the other half. Our Complete tier includes a calculator that takes your age, the standard applied and your current time, and tells you the gap in seconds and whether it is closeable in eight weeks or needs four months.

Do not train only the run

The PJFT is a run, but basic training is not. You will be carrying, lifting and marching, so a candidate who can only run arrives at RAF Halton underprepared for everything else. Build general strength alongside the running — it also makes you far less likely to pick up the sort of injury that ends an application before it starts.

Before you get to the fitness test

The fitness test is one stage of several. Before it you will sit the Defence Aptitude Assessment, and your scores there decide which roles are open to you — so it is worth preparing for properly with a set of DAA practice tests. After it come the interview, the medical and security checks, which our guide on what happens after the DAA walks through.