Can a commissioned officer in the Australian army become a sniper?
The battalion sniper cells do not contain any officers – the few sniper-qualified officers in the Army started off as enlisted soldiers before earning a commission, and even then they are not employed in sniper roles. In the SASR, officers are beret-qualified but their main role is administrative. You will do less specialist courses, you’d be lucky/unlucky if you saw combat and the odds of getting onto a sniper course are very slim. The ADF has released a 13-week training program that is designed to get infantrymen of a good fitness to special forces levels. It’s recommended you do this program after submitting the paperwork for selection. It’s pretty hard work, often involves two or three hard workouts a day. Don’t try before you actually join, or you risk injuring yourself.
