In November 2018, a female soldier successfully completed the US Army’s initial Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) course (Myers, 2018).

Several women have attempted the 24-day programme, which is part of the Special Forces selection and training pipeline, since then, but none have made it to the next round.

The female soldier will eventually move onto the Qualification Course, aka ‘Q’ Course, for specialised SF training.

Generally, SF candidates take a break from training after the SFAS course before moving on to the next step of the Q course. For example, Captains might attend their designated career course, while specialists would attend the Basic Leader Course, in anticipation of a promotion to sergeant upon completing their SF qualification.

The Q course consists of a number of phases of training and lasts about a year at least, but can take almost two years depending on a soldier’s specialty and assigned foreign language.

Reference

Myers, M. (2018) A female soldier has made it through the Army’s Special Forces selection. Available from World Wide Web: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/11/14/a-female-soldier-has-made-it-through-the-armys-special-forces-selection/. [Accessed: 02 April, 2019].