Training

Main article: United States Navy SEAL selection and training

Students practice CQB drills during SEAL Qualification Training with a M4 CQB-R

SEAL training is very rigorous, one of the toughest training programs for special operations in the world. The drop out rate for SEAL classes is regularly 70 to 80 percent. The average Navy SEAL spends over a year in a series of formal training environments before being awarded theSpecial Warfare Operator Naval Rating and the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 5326 Combatant Swimmer (SEAL) or, in the case of commissioned naval officers, the designation Naval Special Warfare (SEAL) Officer. All Navy SEALs must attend and graduate from their rating's 24-week "A" School or selection course known as Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) school and then the 28-week SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) program. SQT qualifies all BUD/S graduates in basic SEAL skillsets in MAROPS, Combat Swimmer, Communications, TCCC, Close Quarters Combat, Land Warfare, Staticline/Freefall Parachute Operations, SERE and Combatives. All sailors entering the SEAL training pipeline with the Navy Hospital Corpsman rating or those chosen by Naval Special Warfare Command must also attend the 57-week USSOCOM Medical Sergeant course and subsequently earn the NEC SO-5392 Naval Special Warfare Medic before joining an operational Team. Once outside the formal schooling environment SEALs entering a new Team at the beginning of an operational rotation can expect 18 months of Professional Development/Schools (PRODEV) and Troop unit level training (ULT) before each 6-month deployment. In total, from the time a prospective SEAL enters military service to the time a SEAL finishes his first pre-deployment training cycle, it can take as much as 30 months to completely train a Navy SEAL for their first deployment.^[11]