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SAS selection is open to anyone in the armed forces, however, most applications do not get past the paperwork stage. There are many reasons for this but essentially some people are just not good enough in one way or another to make it. It could be a disciplinary issue, or it could be fitness, or even length of service.
The Regiment prefer soldiers who have "got some time under their belt", and are more mature.
If you get through all of that, you will need to be very very fit, you don't need to be a man mountain, but obviously the stronger and fitter you are the better. But you can be immensely strong and fit without being huge.
The key area though is mental toughness. The whole selection process is not designed to fail you, it is designed to make you fail yourself.
During the process you will be able to leave at any time, in fact that is the only thing that is made easy. Those that drop out early (not through injury) are doing everyone a favour, the process gets tougher, and the mind games increase as does the physical requirement.
Most of those that fail after about 4 or 5 months, would have been physically fit enough to complete the selection process, however the mental strength has just not been up to the task.
It takes around 9 Months from start to finish and will involve Temperate, Arctic and Jungle training.
If you are one of the few that get "Badged", you will be on trial throughout your service. You will do your first tour (3 years) and so long as you want to stay with the Regiment, and so long as your peers are happy for you to stay, then you will carry on. Some do many tours one after the other, others go back to their Units, whatever they may be Signals, Engineers, Para's, Infantry etc.
You will always be able to recognise someone who has been badged, as their wings will be the "Moth" and not the operational wings, though you will only see them wearing these after they have returned to their units.
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