Some follow-ups:
1. What is the hardest branch of the military to get into in your country? In the US, the Air Force takes the cake and is very competitive, and becoming a pilot is practically like applying to an elite university and is very, very, competitive.
2. Does your nation have mandatory military service?
3. Do women serve combat roles in your country?
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Didnt serve. I was deemed mentally/physically fit but chose not to. We draw a number and depending on the range you have to serve for a minimum of 4 months.
1. The army special forces, the navy special forces and pilot (under which jet fighter pilot probably is the toughest) in the air force are the hardest to get into
2. We have mandatory conscription (basic training only) but the vast majority are there by choice.
3. Women can participate in combat
I didnt have to, but I wanted to. I wasn’t allowed to join the group I wanted due to health concerns. So I didnt. Would have been combat diving. And funnily enough I had been invited for some “Trial Training” for them due to my sports activites the year before.
And to your questions,
1. Not really any difference. Only the special forces and different prereqs like maximum height or stuff
2. We had. If you where born before the years 93/94 it was mandatory
3. Yes and No. It depends.
Only did my conscription, six months in a mobile jaeger battalion. I wouldn’t call doing the mandatory conscription as fully “serving in the military” as such.
> 1, What is the hardest branch of the military to get into in your country? In the US, the Air Force takes the cake and is very competitive, and becoming a pilot is practically like applying to an elite university and is very, very, competitive.
Probably combat divers or the special jaeger forces.
> 2, Does your nation have mandatory military service?
Yes, but only for (fit) men. There’s some progress being made to extend the draft/levy to women too, but even if that happened the service itself wouldn’t be mandatory like for men.
By levy/draft I mean the process where information about the military service is given to all young men, health is checked to see if one is fit for service, and so on.
> 3, Do women serve combat roles in your country?
Yes.
Well, yes, kinda. We do have conscription, but it doesn’t mean we’re on active duty.
1. Not a clue, probably parachute troops or combat divers.
2. Sort of, for every male aged 19 to 30. There’s civil service alternative though. Or open prison.
3. Yes. They are not conscripted though so they are volunteers.
We have mandatory service for male citizens, contrary to popular belief on the internet this *need not be military service*. There are three options available, only one of them is the military. While it’s only mandatory for male citizens, women can volunteer and then have the exact same selection procedure as men, all roles are open to them, currently amout 0.8% of soldiers are women* (though it varies widely, the quota is way higher in roles such as medics, and way lower in other roles).
I did choose to do my service in the military. I had my basic training with the NBC Defense Corps and now spend my 4 weeks a year of repetition courses in the HQ Battalion of one of our mechanized Brigades.
The hardest roles to get into are, obviously, the special forces. There are three roles that fall under the term special forces: Grenadier (Special forces infantry), MP-SpezDet (Military Police Special Unit) and Fallschirmaufklährer (Parachute Troops). Getting into any of these requires you to ace every single hest they throw at you during selection. Becoming a pilot is also very hard but follows a totally different procedure than any other role in the armed forces, therefore it’s a bit hard to compare.
What makes the Swiss Armed Forces unique is their low percentage of professional soldiers (less than 5%). Any rank is equally available to non-professionals and professionals (in fact professionals literally can’t be promoted in theri professional roles). Even among officers the vast majority is not a professional soldier. Instead most Swiss soldiers have a regular, civilian, job and spend a few weeks a year (3 – 4) in training courses to keep everything fresh.
*: the political wheels are turning to increase that number. There are also proposals to make service (but remember that need not be military service) mandatory for all citizens.
I did as we had mandatory military service.
Can’t really answer rest of your questions as I don’t care about our military that much
I haven’t, but quite a few of my family have, predominantly the army
>What is the hardest branch of the military to get into in your country?
The individual branches all have some roles that are relatively easy to get into and others are very competitive. A lot of special forces roles require you to be an already serving member of the military first.
>Does your nation have mandatory military service?
Nope, purely professional, the UK abolished conscription in the early 1960s.
>Do women serve combat roles in your country?
Yes, but this only became a thing a couple of years ago.
Currently serving as a musician.
1. Generally speaking, for regular troops, the All Arms Commando Course to become a Royal Marine or Army Commando as well as P Coy for the Parachute Regiment are notorious for being somewhat gruesome. Then again what’s “hard” and what’s is not is pretty broad and comparing different services does not make any sense.
2. No, not anymore.
3. Women were only allowed to join the Combat Support Arms (Royal Artillery, Engineers etc.) and Combat Services (RLC, Medical Service, Band Service etc.) until 2018. Now they can apply for Combat Arms (i.e. for all regiments that participate in direct grounds combat).
We have a mandatory Military Service.
“Gebirgsjäger” (Mountain Ranger) is the hardest branch of the military but I guess getting into the guard or as pilot have stricter criterias.
Woman can volunteer for military
1) Military doctors. You need to score like 98% overall to my countrys equivalent to SAT
2) Yes. 12 months. 9 months if you serve all of them near borders.
3) Yes, but you won’t see many. Mainly officers or sub-officers (lower grade of training, 3 years instead of 4, start at E-6 end up to O-5 or O-6 depending if they have an extra university degree)
Veeery few E-5 to E-9 (no military academy)
Zero privates.
With a handful of exceptions, even if they are part of a combat role unit, they will be given non combat positions in offices.
I didn’t
1. Probably becoming a pilot in the Air Force
2. Theoretically yes but in reality no. The Netherlands suspended conscription in the mid 90s but everyone who turns 17 will get a letter from the government explaining that conscription isn’t abandoned yet.
3. Yes but there are fewer women than man in the army
2. Most likely the special branches of the army. The special forces (FSK). Don’t think the air force is that impossible to get into. Given the amount of planes combined with the amount of people serving in the air forces.. The vast mayority are not pilots or fly planes. Assume it must be the same in US ? Most people in the air force doesn’t fly planes but do other stuff relating to the it .. acording to wikipedia 350.000 active personel and 5800 planes.
Yes, as volunteer draftee in the light infantry (Jäger) for 23 month.
1. Probably fighter pilots and special forces. Navy electronic warfare was also very popular and hard to get in in my days.
2. Yes, but it’s suspended since 2011.
3. Women are allowed in combat roles since 2001. Before that, they only served as medics or musicians.
Yes I did
1) In conscription I’d say the Army is considered a bit harder than the air force and navy. The requirements for getting in arent very different but the Army is known to be more physically demanding and stricter on certain rules. As for a career in the military the difficulty greatly depends on what you’re looking at getting into. Of course you have the special forces, FSK and MJK that are notoriously incredible hard to get into. Getting a job at any area of the Norwegian military can be kinda hard, more supply than there are jobs available.
2) It’s not mandatory in practice but we do have conscription for men and women. Meaning technically speaking you couldn’t refuse to join if the military wanted you. In theory it works differently as becoming a conscript in the military is very popular these days. The quotas are filled up, generally with motivated people who want to serve. So forcing people who don’t want to is rare and not needed usually.
3) We actually have [Jegertroppen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jegertroppen), a full women special forces unit. However it was kinda recently set up and they’ve not taken part in combat abroad afaik. Women do serve in regular combat roles aswell. Although as far as the units that have served abroad go they’re definitely in great minority. Regular conscription service has a much more balanced male-female ratio.
Yes, I have done the 3 year (alternating weekends+3x 2 weeks field camp) service in the Junior Officer Command Training so after my graduation from the med school I will also become a reservist medical officer.
1) obviously the hardest to get in is the Special Operation Force.
2) Yes, 9 month conscription for males, females can enlist voluntarily. Only ~4-5k of draftees with highest numbers are called to serve. One can also serve a part-time service in the National Defence Volunteer Forces (after 3 years service there you would not be drafted) or in the 3 year reserve officer courses.
3) Yes. Indeed, Lithuania had no restrictions for women since 1990, so Lithuanian female soldiers took part in combat operations back then when their western allied counterparts couldn’t.
I haven’t served, though I would have considered it as an option if the situation was different. As things are right now, though, I’m not that interested.
For your follow-ups, Spain abolished mandatory military service during the 90s. The Army, Navy and Air Force have been staffed by professionals only since.
Coscription, 12 months in the border Jaegars. Hardest is the Special Jaegars. Then divers and other special forces. Border Jaegars are the hardest “normal troops” (you don’t have to apply just sent to to your service in) but they also have the best food. We have mandatory service for men (Who don’t opt out and do civil service instead) at the moment although the defense forces is looking at expanding it to women as well as combat roles expand from physical to tech.
I didn’t serve (worked as a nurse instead), but I can answer your follow-up questions.
>1. What is the hardest branch of the military to get into in your country? In the US, the Air Force takes the cake and is very competitive, and becoming a pilot is practically like applying to an elite university and is very, very, competitive.
Back in my day, the air force was hardest to get into as a conscript, since they had the least need for them. Army was the easiest.
Within the branches, special forces, pilot positions and the submarine branch are reportedly hardest to get into.
>2. Does your nation have mandatory military service
In theory, Germany has mandatory conscription for men (though the constitution allows for civilian replacement service).
In reality, conscription was suspended a few years ago.
>3. Do women serve combat roles in your country?
Yes, though they had to sue the government for that all the way to the European Court.
Didn’t serve, yet.
Now onto the questions.
>1. What is the hardest branch of the military to get into in your country? In the US, the Air Force takes the cake and is very competitive, and becoming a pilot is practically like applying to an elite university and is very, very, competitive.
The cake would be taken by the Air Force or the Guardia di Finanza (one of the two national gendarmerie forces) both are roughly on par on how much preparation you need to join them.
>2. Does your nation have mandatory military service?
It technically does, but since 2005 has been stopped in favour of an all-volunteer force.
>3. Do women serve combat roles in your country?
Yes they can
I didn’t serve, but I may answer the questions:
1. Probably Special Forces, which is separate branch of the military in Poland.
2. Since 2009 there is no conscription, but there is still evaluation of being fit for active service in time of war.
3. I think that women don’t serve it the battlefield. Maybe pilots are exceptions and sailors, but this kind of units haven’t participated in any fight yet, I think.
1. I’m in Latvian National Guard (Zemessardze), which is not full time military service. If you don’t have health issues, it’s not that hard to get into the professional military or even officer school. The branches that would be hardest to get into are the special forces because of the physical requirements and the entrance test ([here’s a US Marine commenting on it](https://youtu.be/N2NlOfNtiYY)) or the air force simply because it’s very small.
2. No mandatory service.
3. At least in Zemessardze women can serve in combat roles, I think in the professional service too. There are many women in logistics, medics, comms etc.