Page 120 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2018

LAND FORCES
TRAINING
“It takes a little over two years to take a
member off the street, through the Special Forces Reinforcement Cycle and then to graduate at the end as a badged Commando, and the attrition rate is quite high.”
AIRCRAFT SUPPORT EQUIPMENT MILITARY SHELTERS SPECIALISED TRAILERS VEHICLE BODIES & MODULES
ENGINEERING DESIGN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT QUALIFICATION TESTING PRODUCTION THROUGH LIFE SUPPORT
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An example of the strong relationships SOTEC has developed to deliver the sought-after cognitive advantage, is the collaboration with UNSW Canberra at ADFA to offer a master’s degree in spe- cial operations and irregular warfare. This course is also open to anyone who meets the university prerequisites.
“We’re using that course as one of the platforms to deliver that graduate-level education to both special operations personnel and people in the broader
national security space, so they can understand some of the nuances of special operations is it complements other land, maritime, air, space and cyber forces,” Commandant SOTEC explained to ADM. “We are really moving forward with education and we have definitely begun putting the ‘E’ into special operations training.”
The establishment of a Human Perfor- mance Optimisation Centre is another strategy that SOTEC is pursuing as part
of the through-life education of SO- COMD personnel.
“We are working with all units within SOCOMD to improve the overall per- formance of our people – we’re talking about mind, body and spirit – which is an important aspect of what we do,” Commandant SOTEC continued. “As the name implies, optimising human performance is intuitively linked to small teams who are designed to go beyond that which we expect from other elements of the ADF, and deliver disproportionate effects on behalf of the government. So, you can imagine there’s an important link between delivering human performance optimisation and the role of a Special Op- erations schoolhouse.”
Special Forces Direct Recruitment Scheme
One of the more traditional roles of SO- TEC is its partnership with Defence Force Recruiting in the Special Forces Direct Re- cruitment Scheme, which takes potential SOCOMD members from off the street.
114 | September 2018 | www.australiandefence.com.au