Specialist Selection Cadres Of The Ringerike Armed Forces

Overview
The Ringerike Armed Forces runs a series of specialist selection cadres to determine the suitability of applicants aspiring to serve in certain specialist units, including Jeger units and the Special Forces. These courses include:


 * Jeger Screening
 * All Arms Jeger School
 * All Arms Jeger School (Officer/Combat Support Arms)
 * Mountain Warfare Cadre
 * Parachute Assault Cadre
 * Marine Jeger Cadre
 * Long Range Patrol Cadre
 * Air Force Jeger Cadre
 * Special Forces Selection (HSK)
 * Special Forces Selection (MSK)

With the exception of the Special Forces Selection Cadres, which require 3 years prior service, the above courses, or a combination of them are available as enlistment options to access certain units.

Jeger Screening
All potential recruits take a psychometric test and are interviewed at the Armed Forces Careers Office (AFCO) to assess their suitability. A series of physical assessments are conducted including a sight test and medical examination. Then the Pre Joining Fitness Test(PJFT): two 1.5-mile runs (2.4 km) on a treadmill, the first to be completed within 12 minutes 30 seconds, the second within 10 minutes and 30 seconds, with 1 minute of rest in between. If these are passed, they will move onto the formal screening, a 4 day course held at Jeger School consisting of:
 * Day 0- Arrival at Jeger School and opening brief.
 * Day 1- Repeat the PJFT, Plus a VO2 Max test, and set cadenced exercises with perfect form, maximum score is 60 Press Ups, 85 Sit-Ups and 16 Pull-Ups. Following this a swim test will also be conducted.
 * Day 2- Team Tasks conducted over the low assault course, individual tasks conducted on the high assault course and the Determination Test, a roughly 2 hour evolution conducted on harsh terrain designed to test the physical and mental limits of candidates. The applicants will then spend the night in the field.
 * Day 3- Candidates will be informed of their success or failure at this point, successful applicants will be briefed by PTIs on interim training and issued two sets of boots.

All Arms Jeger School
All successful applicants, regardless of service and destination, will then attend Jeger School, devoid of any service insignia, or rank if held. Recruits will not have any interaction with their future service until the end of their Jeger training; The first weeks of training are spent learning basic skills that will be used later.

Physical training at this stage emphasizes all-round physical strength, endurance and flexibility in order to develop the muscles necessary to carry the heavy equipment a marine will use in an operational unit. Key milestones include a gym passout at week 9 (not carried out with fighting order), a battle swimming test, and learning to do a "regain" (i.e. climb back onto a rope suspended over a water tank). Most of these tests are completed wearing fighting order of 31 lb (14 kg) of Personal Load Carrying Equipment. Individual fieldcraft skills are also taught at this basic stage.

The course run by the Jeger School is broken into the following Training modules:
 * Foundation – 3 weeks
 * Individual Skills – 7 weeks
 * Advanced Skills – 5 weeks
 * Operations Of War – 10 weeks
 * Basic Jeger Phase – 6 weeks
 * Test Week

Officers, non-infantry candidates and transferees only conduct a short beat-up followed by the Basic Jeger course and test week, as the basics will have been covered in their careers so far.

Test Week
Test Week immediately follows the end of the final exercise and follows the layout below, and is all carried out wearing full fighting order as a minimum:
 * Day 1- Endurance Course, a six mile course consisting of two miles of obstacles includes tunnels, pipes, wading pools, and an underwater culvert. The remaining four miles are the run back to Jeger School. The six miles must be covered in under 71 minutes and is immediately followed by a marksmanship test, where the recruit must hit 6 out of 10 shots at a 25m target simulating 200m. Milling is also carried out on day 1. In this event, each candidate is paired with another of 'similar weight and build', and is given 60 seconds to demonstrate 'controlled physical aggression' in a milling contest - similar to boxing, except neither winning, losing, nor skill are pre-requisites of passing. Candidates are instead scored on their determination and aggression, while blocking and dodging result in points deducted. Candidates wear head protection, gum shields and boxing gloves.
 * Day 2- Rest
 * Day 3- Nine Mile Speed March, carrying full fighting order, to be completed in 90 minutes; the pace is thus 10 minutes per mile (9.6 km/h or 6 mph).
 * Day 4- Assault Course, This is an assault course combined with an aerial confidence test. It starts with the "Jeger slide" and ends with a rope climb up a thirty-foot near-vertical wall. It must be completed with full fighting order in 12 minutes.
 * Day 5- Stretcher Race Candidates are divided into teams of 16 men, and have to carry a 175 lb (79 kg) stretcher over a distance of 5 miles (8.0 km), each individual candidate wears a helmet, webbing and a slung rifle. No more than four candidates carry the stretcher at any given time, swapping round at regular intervals so that all candidates carry the stretcher for a certain distance
 * Day 6- Rest
 * Day 7- Rest
 * Day 8- 30 miler This is a 30-mile (48-km) march across the harsh terrain surrounding Jeger school, wearing full fighting order, and additional safety equipment carried by the recruit in a daysack. It must be completed in seven hours, and is self navigated in the group. Immediately following this successful applicants will be presented with their Jeger flashes and berets. Unsuccessful recruits will be back-trooped to an earlier point in the course.

Service Specific Cadres
Upon successful completion of Jeger school, candidates will be forwarded on to their respective specialization courses, and will receive official association to their service branch for the first time, these courses are:


 * Mountain Warfare Cadre, Available to all Jegers, as well as other individuals subject to operational requirements.


 * Parachute Assault Cadre, for those joining 1/15 (Parachute) Jeger Regiment, this cadre prepares recruits for the high intensity requirements of serving with a parachute assault force and concludes at the end of the Basic Parachute Course.


 * Marine Jeger Cadre, for those joining the Marine Jegers, it teaches all aspects of amphibious and riverine warfare, amphibious reconnaissance and special operations tasks.


 * Long Range Patrol Cadre, for those joining 101 (Independent) Reconnaissance Company, this course instructs on Special Reconnaissance, Covert Urban Surveillance and Undercover Operations.


 * Air Force Jeger Cadre, for those joining any of the Air Force Jeger units, this course provides instruction on Air Integration, Specialist Airfield Assault tactics and helicopter interdiction.

Special Forces Selection
Special Forces selection is overseen by a joint team from the HSK and MSK and the only variation is what courses are during the 'employment skills' after the course is complete, during the process, instructors will not reveal which of the two units they come from. It is broken into the following phases however all official details are classified:


 * Aptitude-4 Weeks- Informally named "Hell on the Hills" the phase is primarily consisted of long distance, heavy weight and fast paced marches across mountainous terrain in Ringerike's north, applicants will also conduct the SF swim test at this point. The phase is designed to determine the suitability of candidates for further training.


 * Induction-9 Weeks- Those who pass the Aptitude Phase will undertake an intensive period of instruction and assessment of SF Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs), including SF weapons and SOPs (standard operating procedures). The majority of this period is spent in the field, an environment that is suitable for SF training and ideal to achieve the purpose of this phase. Much of the training is aimed at discovering an individual's qualities. The suitability of volunteers is assessed by their reaction to, and ability to cope with a series of situations when under physical and mental pressure, and by close observation by instructors at all times.


 * Employment Skills- Variable This is the phase in which several key skill such as free-fall parachuting, combat diving and other specialty courses, it is also during this phase that applicants will conduct SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract) Training, during which they will be expected to complete an evasion exercise, before 'being captured', even if successful in evasion and subjected to a 36 hour captivity period during which enhanced interrogation techniques will be used to try to force candidates to break, this is said to be the ultimate test of a candidate's moral fiber. At the end of the interrogation, if successful, candidates will receive their unit insignia and be officially inducted into their units.