The Navy opened a new Navy Operational Fitness and Fueling System zone at Purdy Fitness Center on Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan on June 26, 2026, giving 7th Fleet sailors a dedicated place to train and recover. Capt. Jon Hopkins opened the area after a $1 million upgrade to the facility.
The move matters because the Navy is pushing harder into fitness now, with spending on programs and equipment rising to $62.8 million this fiscal year from $53 million last year, and a request for $67 million in the coming fiscal year. NOFFS, which launched in 2009, is the Navy’s official exercise and nutrition program, built around operational fitness, strength, endurance and sandbag training.
At Purdy, the zone includes a turf area for sled pushes and sprints, along with cardio machines, weights and a recovery area for foam rolling and stretching. Michael Motohashi said the point of NOFFS was to create something easy for anybody to follow and to take away the questions that make workout plans hard to use. The workout builder is also available on the MWR website and mobile apps, and MWR offers a one-day certification course for sailors who want hands-on experience with the equipment.
The spending push comes even as the Navy body composition failure rate has been increasing for the past 15 years, a reminder that more money on equipment does not automatically fix the problem. Nearly a quarter of active-duty U.S. troops, or 23%, are classified as obese, and the figure is 27% in the Navy’s active component. Justin Williams said he likes the program and wants a 95% pass rate on the Physical Fitness Assessment his sailors take twice a year, adding that sailors can get the same intensity and frequency there that they would find in another setting.
Naval Installations Command is working to bring a NOFFS zone to every installation, and Naval Air Facility Atsugi is next in line. For Yokosuka, the new space is the most visible sign yet that the Navy is treating fitness less as a side program and more as part of readiness itself. The unresolved question is not whether more zones are coming, but whether sailors will use them enough to change the numbers that have been moving the wrong way for years.
