Toughest selection course statistically?

[zerominusten]

Hi I'm new to the forums. I've been reading for awhile and really enjoy everyone's posts.

I was wondering, statistically speaking which is the toughest selection course for a special ops unit based on the dropout/failure rate (not just in the US military)?

[MarineSniper8541]

I'm not saying it's the hardest but as far as stats go...Marine snipers have a pretty rough go of it.

Unlike some branches of specialized units, to become a Marine Sniper, you have to not only be approved but also recommended just to be allowed to show up to take the indoc. Only about 1 in 10 actually pass the indoc (physical, mental and administrative screening from the battalions).

Unlike schools like BUDS and SFAS, you may pass the indoc and do everything right, even kick ass doing it...but the platoon does not have to take you unless you are liked by the members of the platoon.(Its a gut check not a formal school with a carriculum, so they can pick and choose.)

Then usually 1 in 10 of those that get do go to a platoon end up being booted back out for various reasons.
Of the 1 in 10 that make it simply into the platoon, only about 3 of those 10 will be allowed to attend the school.
The actual Sniper School has about a 50% wash out rate. The classes stay at about 24 students per class so if you do the math...

Only about 1 in 400 who aspire to become snipers actually make it from initial screening all the way to being accepted into a platoon and then pass the school to obtain the MOS of 8541, Marine Scout/Sniper.

That means the success rate is only .25%...not 25%...but .25%. Or you could say a 99.75% wash out rate. That's pretty tough in my book.

At any given time, there are only about 300 active duty Scout/Snipers serving in operator billets in the Marine Corps.

Moreover, depending on who you talk to and the positioning of the moon and stars, you will get different opinions on who is the "best" special ops unit. It is, however, a well known fact that USMC Sniper school produces the best snipers in the world followed by the Brittish Royal Marines who modeled their school after that of the USMC school.
The US Army school is a good one also but it is not as long or intense as the USMC school. Partly because the Army does not employ its snipers the same way the Marines do.

[OzMan]

US Coast Guard Basic Selection. 'Nuff said...

[RoBBo]

i heard somewhere that Aussie SASR selection has like an 80% drop out rate.

[Zach R.]

I'm reading "Inside Delta Force" right now and I've gotta tell ya, I've never heard of a selection course that included multiple 18 mile marches, multiple psycology tests, and to top it all off, a 40 mile march with a 45 pound ruck, not to mention the PT test and commander's board. But I'll tell ya, I've watched the thing on the Discovery channel about the Navy SEALs and whoo, that's gotta tough. During "Hell week", students are only allowed to sleep 45 minutes per day.

[Fargin]

The Danish Jægerkorps:

100 aply to an eight week patrole course which 50 quallify to and half pass it. Each week consist of an 110 houer schedule where where the Courseleaders controle 70. "We don't care how they use their sparetime, we don't care if they sleep or not." In the eight weeks the aspirants walk, swim or run 500-700 kilometers and only 15-20 pass with the grade "very sadisfying".

These are allowed to start on the two week aspirant course which between 1 and 7 passes each year.

[ibstolidude]

ahhh..

[Royal]

This is an old one, but Chris, Martin, Argyll et al will appreciate it...

The British Army Chef's course - no one's ever passed it.

[EvanL]

Wow theyre seems to be a lot of biased in these replys. The guy who names himself marine sniper votes for the marine sniper course. The aussie votes for the SASR. The dane votes for Jaegerkorpset (sp). If i were to pick a selection, probably the SBS/SAS. To be in the SBS you hjave to go through the royal marines first and that is one of the toughest selections in the world. I heard somewhere that theyre basic is over 9 months long.

[Argyll]

It would be a brave cook that votes for himself then rofl

Royal that's a peach!!!! :D It's also been a long time since I heard the term "pongo's" too!!

[Lancer]

Nice one Royal! :D

British Army chefs battle cry "one sausage!"

[martinexsquaddie]

nice one royal once went to put parmesian on my spag bog in the cookhouse and cockcroaches poured out and they got really upset when I ate the roaches. Seems they were the chief cooks pets :roll:

[Trident-za]

South African Special Forces between the years of 1975 and 1988 had only 480 people successfully complete the course (out of just over 100 000 "trainees"). This is a failure rate of roughly 99.6%. As a rough average, 7700 attempts and 36 successful candidates a year.

[BMF]

one of the toughest schools' ive ever heard of/met anyone who completed is the german army's mountain leader school. similar in essence to the U.S. ranger school, it teaches small unit warfare and leadership. supposedly the german army school is pure hell, but who knows.

in general, different courses stress different things. SFAS, Ranger, Pathfinder, BUD/S, etc are all very tough, but in different ways. so a course one person flies through could be very hard on a different person, all case dependant

[a. enders]

Weren't there a few deaths in the SAS recruitment?Didn't know South Africa had a sperical forces....pretty cool.

[ScoutRanger]

Supermans Sidekick

[BMF]

most of the worlds' elite units suffer casualties during training. damned near every year someone dies during ranger school. same deal in SF. when you train as hard as those guys, doing night jumps, air assaults, etc, casualties are going to happen. sad truth of life

drive on

[Chris1]

This is an old one, but Chris, Martin, Argyll et al will appreciate it...

The British Army Chef's course - no one's ever passed it.
rofl
Its a prime example of why we need more women in the army
It might still be crap but who'd complain? :)

[Silverado]

Jeez want a bunch of pussies. The selection/training to be a pizza delivery dude ****s on all of the afformentioned. To even get a foot in the door potential applicants need to be multilinguel, and experts in CQB and defensive driving. Try delivering pizzas in Punchbowl, Sydney on a Friday night and you'll see why. ;)

[digrar]

SASR are the same. The old saying, train hard, fight easy. I think most SF units would have a similar story of having more training fatalities than battle fatalities.

[GI_Rutger]

South African Special Forces between the years of 1975 and 1988 had only 480 people successfully complete the course (out of just over 100 000 "trainees"). This is a failure rate of roughly 99.6%. As a rough average, 7700 attempts and 36 successful candidates a year.

Christ, how much members had the SA Special Forces (Recce) in the period 75-88? Harry McCallion also completed the course, and it was harder than the SAS course. Personaly i think the Mountainleader courses are the hardest.

[odh2507]

just wondering...can u actually fail the basic training in the US army...navy...air force...when you would do really bad or will they take you anyways no matter how bad you do....? and some other stuff...can you decide in which state or country you want to be stationed...