Page 121 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2018

Anyone from outside the ADF inter- ested in a career in special operations must first go through an intensive pro- cess led by Defence Recruiting and supported by SOTEC. Successful can- didates then go to Army’s 1st Recruit Training Battalion at Kapooka and undergo that course as a formed body, followed by infantry training with the Army’s School of Infantry at Singleton, before returning to SOTEC for a series of deeper courses to further develop their skills over a number of months.
If the candidate survives this process, they will then undertake the Special Forces Entry Test at SOTEC and then progress to the Commando Selection Course run by SOTEC at Holsworthy. If selected, the candidate will then begin reinforcement 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,” Com- mandant SOTEC explained. “But one of the
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SOTEC combines a number of training options for the Special Forces community.
reasons we’re keen on that process of bring- ing people into our organisation is because they bring a really diverse range of skills, backgrounds and life experiences. That has been a real benefit to SOCOMD over the ten or so years the course has been running and the program is going from strength to strength.”
Overall, Commandant SOTEC says that the move from SFTC to SOTEC and putting the ‘E’ into special operations training is already paying dividends.
“Which is a really excellent place for the organisation to be in,” he concluded. “From our perspective it’s a really good news story for SOCOMD and for Army.”
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