SPECOPSLAB
APPROXIMATElast verified 2026-10-18

EKO Cobra / DSE (Bundesministerium für Inneres) — Einsatzbeamter
Police Fitness-Check (Polizeigrundausbildung) — entry route; Cobra limits not public

EKO Cobra (Einsatzkommando Cobra / Direktion für Spezialeinheiten) is the special police unit of Austria's Interior Ministry, based in Wiener Neustadt. Only police officers with at least two years of service can apply, regardless of age or gender, and the ministry does not publish the numerical limits of the Cobra selection. This calculator therefore checks the official police Fitness-Check from basic training (push-ups and a 3,000 m run), which every candidate has already passed: a gate on the way to Cobra, not the Cobra standard itself.

Move the sliders to your latest results. The verdict updates instantly against the published standards — calculated in your browser, nothing stored.

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Pay · free · rates from 1 Jul 2026

What an EKO Cobra officer earns

Pay grade
GS 3
Gross · Inspektor / Revierinspektor (E 2b) · GS 3€3,271 per month, before tax
Base pay grows with service — tap a bar
Not included in the total
  • Special payments (Sonderzahlungen, § 3 GehG): 50% of the monthly pay every quarter, so 14 salaries a year provisional16.67% of salary per year
  • Long-service increment after the top step (Dienstalterszulage, § 73 GehG): after 2/4 years, E 2b 89.50/141.50, E 2a 89.50/143.20, E 1 242.70/485.40€89.50 – €485.40 per month
  • Function allowance on posts with a function group, E 2a (Funktionszulage, § 74 GehG); E 2b does not receive it and the grading of Cobra posts is not published€94 – €1,252.40 per month

Police pay scale (GehG section VII, Exekutivdienst) as amended by BGBl. I Nr. 100/2025, in force from 1 Jul 2026 (+3.3%); a step is reached every 2 years. The Cobra danger allowance is set by regulation as a percentage of the reference amount; the euro figure is our own calculation, hence marked provisional. The same 12.06% also goes to officers who spend at least two thirds of their time on outdoor duty, so the fixed pay differs from patrol service by €167.67 at most; overtime, night and on-call duty (hourly rates under §§ 82, 82a GehG) and any unpublished specialist allowances are not included.

provisional = official source with a provisional legal status, a secondary source or our own calculation; see the sources.

The test, event by event

EventBasic level (Grundstufe), men 18–29
Push-ups (Liegestütze)15
3,000 m run (Laufen)15:15

Higher levels (e.g. competitive or elevated standards) and your gap to each are in the paid report.

Also required

  • You must already be a police officer (Exekutivdienst) with at least two years of professional experience; there is no direct entry. Applications are open regardless of age and gender, the admission criteria are the same for men and women, and no age limit applies.
  • A class B driving licence and no pending disciplinary proceedings.
  • Police recruitment itself has two test days: computer-based psychological testing with a clinical-psychiatric assessment, then a medical examination (including ECG, spirometry and bicycle ergometry) and an interview. Since the 2023 evaluation there is no sports test at recruitment: it was moved into basic training, where the Fitness-Check shown here is taken.
  • The nationwide Cobra selection takes place at the Cobra base in Wiener Neustadt: a sports preselection, then an obstacle and shooting course, a ranking, a sports-medical examination and an extensive psychological test for the best candidates, and finally a selection board.
  • Depending on need, the best 20 to 30 candidates start a six-month basic course (shooting, tactics, rope techniques, close combat), followed by specialisations such as combat diver, parachutist, precision marksman, dog handler, close protection or rope technician.
Sources:

Questions

Why does the calculator use the police Fitness-Check instead of the Cobra test?

Because the Interior Ministry publishes only the structure of the Cobra selection, not its numbers. Every candidate is a police officer who has passed the Fitness-Check in basic training, so it is the only official fitness gate on the way. You pass it with the basic level (Grundstufe) in push-ups and in one endurance event; the higher performance level (Leistungsstufe) is shown only as a guide and is not a Cobra standard. The values are for men aged 18–29; women and older age groups have their own limits (women 18–29: 7 push-ups and 17:45 for 3,000 m). Instead of the run you may choose 20 km cycling (men 18–29: 50 min) or a 300 m swim (8:00).

What happens in the Cobra sports preselection?

The only official description is a ministry article about the 2006 selection: a knockout basic check of four short exercises (climbing a rope in the gym, a leg raise on the wall bars called Bauchaufzug an der Sprossenwand, a 25 m swim with hands fixed behind the back, and climbing out of a 20 m tower on a rope ladder), then an indoor obstacle course with a 4-minute limit. No minimum repetitions or times were published, and it is not confirmed that the events are the same today.

Where do the numbers come from?

From the official Austrian police careers site polizeikarriere.gv.at, page "Karriere", section on sport in basic training (PGA and FGB), checked on 18 October 2026. The current page marks the rows for women and men with icons only; we assigned them using the archived 2022 version of the page, where the push-up, 3,000 m and 300 m figures are identical. The Cobra requirements come from the Interior Ministry's EKO Cobra page (last updated 19 November 2024) and the 2007 ministry article "Die Prüfung der Extreme".

What does EKO Cobra pay?

What an EKO Cobra officer earns: in the default scenario (Inspektor / Revierinspektor (E 2b) · GS 3) €3,271 gross per month, rates from 1 Jul 2026. Some amounts are provisional — see the notes in the pay section. The pay calculator on this page lets you change rank, seniority and allowances. Main source: § 72 GehG — Gehalt der Beamten des Exekutivdienstes (i. d. F. BGBl. I Nr. 100/2025, ab 1.7.2026).

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