Blake Hall
The Pentagon estimates that at the earliest, the first female candidates can begin Navy SEAL training in August 2016. Assuming they complete training with no delays, they could become full fledged SEALs by October 2017.
The military released a 50-page plan detailing the best case scenario for admitting women into combat positions. In the report, it described a timeline of how soon women can become SEALS assuming they complete training as early as possible.
Here’s a rough timeline for enlisted women:
– Mid-May 2016: Female sailors could start Navy SEAL pretraining at Great Lakes, Illinois
– Late August 2016: First women could start BUD/S at Coronado, California
– September 2017: Female candidates finish BUD/S
– October 2017: First female SEALS will be assigned to their units.
Female officers won’t enter Navy SEAL training until December 2016, and they wouldn’t be ready to start SEAL missions until January 2018.
From the prep to post-BUD/S courses, it takes about 63 weeks for a SEAL candidate to complete every phase of training. The report’s timeline, however, comes with many caveats.
“These dates were determined using best-case scenarios for the [Naval Special Warfare] operator pipeline assuming qualified application packages are received by the prescribed deadlines…and there are no delays,” Rear Adm. Brian Losey, commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, wrote in the introduction of the plan. “Most likely, start dates would shift to the next consecutive class number.”
Very few Navy SEAL candidates actually become SEALs. According to current stats, only 65 percent of male officer candidates make it through the entire process. For enlisted men, only 28 percent finish the course. About 80 percent of all male SEAL candidates also experience training delays due to physical injury.
When 60 women signed up for the Army Ranger School last year, they were whittled down and recycled throughout the process. Only three female Ranger candidates earned their tabs. It’s likely that the first crop of female candidates to attempt Navy SEAL training will experience similar delays and dropouts.