2024-07-23 13:27:20
armed forces
Applicants in boxing gloves: The KSK is looking for new recruits
Updated on 21.07.2024Reading time: 4 min.
Before training to become a commando soldier, there is an extensive test of physical and mental abilities. The aptitude test has been revised. Wanted: the quiet professional.
After 20 minutes, the first one is out: increasingly faster tempo runs over a distance of 1000 meters are the first stop on the long road to becoming a commando soldier. In the Graf Zeppelin barracks in Calw, west of Stuttgart, soldiers do their laps in sneakers. Examiners and instructors from the Special Forces Command (KSK) look closely at the applicants. Between whistles and shouts, cursing can be heard. Then a soldier is called away. He has not managed the lap time prescribed for the so-called personnel assessment procedure.
The newly designed test consists of a total of 30 stations for the applicants, who are put through their paces, their motor skills and their ability to perceive, even under stress and pressure. Psychology and character are examined, as is how the candidates deal with their own aggression. The multi-stage procedure is only a basic requirement for starting the two-year commando training. The test is not intended to be particularly hard, but rather informative.
The KSK is breaking new ground in testing candidates
“We need soldiers who are not only physically but above all mentally robust, fit and alert. And that is what the stations and the tests are aimed at,” says Brigadier General Alexander Krone, the commander of the KSK, who has just taken on his new role.
A course has been set up in the barracks’ sports hall, where tasks vary according to skill, strength and endurance. Reaction speed is tested. The soldiers must remember dangerous areas and bring an injured person – in this case a heavy, uniformed dummy – to safety through a predetermined obstacle course. The final part is the close combat station. Wearing boxing gloves and head protection, professionals test the candidates to see how they withstand blows and react under pressure.
A sergeant (25), paratrooper, has passed the station and is still out of breath. “I have to say, it was more strenuous than I thought because of these intervals,” he says. “I didn’t think it would be so intense. Especially the close combat at the end is exhausting.” He has been in the Bundeswehr since October 2018 and, as he says, wants to be one of the best and to develop personally and militarily. The non-commissioned officer was already involved in the Bundeswehr’s military evacuation mission in Sudan and was on call for rescues in the Middle East. Most recently he was in Romania. The large airborne exercise “Swift Response” involved practicing the recapture of an airport.
The weapon system is the four-man commando squad
“Our target image is the quiet professional who is completely committed to the mission,” says First Lieutenant Andi (44), who heads up the KSK’s recruitment department. Soldiers can apply, but are also specifically approached if they are the best in a course elsewhere or are high-performing participants in the individual combat training course. The soldier and his special skills are the focus. “Our weapon system is the four-man commando squad,” says the officer. The years of special training lead to a “self-efficacy expectation” with the following self-assessment: “With my training, I will be able to cope in any situation.”
Since 2022, the KSK has been focusing on national and alliance defense within NATO. The missions can include combating so-called high-value targets of strategic importance and obtaining key information. The commandos can arrest so-called target persons or mark targets from the ground so that fighter jets can attack them specifically, as was recently practiced during the Arctic Defender exercise in Alaska.
There, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) met several commandos from Calw. The KSK’s range of tasks also includes rescuing Germans from capture, hostage-taking or terrorist threats abroad. In addition, the training of partner special forces abroad. The tasks can be extremely complex and then go far beyond marches under heavy loads – also because more and more technology is relevant.
“Keep going where others give up”
A KSK sergeant instructor and commando soldier since 2013 – said on the sidelines of the test that more attention was now being paid to the psyche and character. The “berserker” who can fight independently for a long time and overcome obstacles is still sought after. However, more attention is being paid to the ability to work in a team, to the “smart fighter” who is prepared not to dig around in problems, but to look for, find and implement solutions.