PASKAL - Navy PASKAL Selection and Training

Navy PASKAL Selection and Training

As a Special Forces unit, PASKAL's personnel are required to be mentally and physically agile. Every new trainee undergoes three months of basic commando training at the Royal Malaysian Navy's (RMN) Lumut Naval Base. The basic criteria to joining this elite force is that all applicants must be younger than 30 years old and to be of sound health. Upon completing the basic commando course, they are sent to the Special Warfare Training Centre (SWTC) in Sungai Udang, Malacca to undergo basic parachuting. Those who pass the gruelling training process will continue to the Advanced First Class training where they are given specialised courses in several fields such as medic, communications, explosives and electrical–mechanical repairing. They are also required to pass a physical test every three months.

Assignment to PASKAL is conditional on passing the PASKAL Physical Screening Test (PST). Prospective trainees are expected to exceed the minimums. Among others, the PST consists of:

1. 7.8 km running in 24 minutes (below 24 years of age)
2. 1.5 km swimming in not more than 25 minutes (in a swimming pool)
3. 6.4 km swimming in open sea with full mission load – under 120 minutes
4. Day–night skydiving at high elevation spots i.e. hills, buildings and on ocean surface.
5. Freestyle swimming for 1.5 km under 31 minutes
6. Surviving in water with hands and feet fully tied up (drown-proofing)
7. Diving without breathing apparatus for a minimum of 7 m in depth

Basic Recruitment Course

1. Pre-Selection/Warm-Up
2. Basic PASKAL commando
3. Diving endurance
4. Basic Sky-Diving

Career Development Course

1. First Class enrollment
2. Underwater Combat Maneuver
3. "Laskar Kanan" enrollment
4. "Bintara Muda" enrollment
5. Diving/Underwater Combat Superior

PASKAL routinely send officers and mens to train with the British SAS, NGSLO, US Navy SEALs, US Navy EOD, Australian Submarine Escape, Assault Swimmer and Australian Clearance Diver, Sniper Supervisor (Australia), Mountain Climbing (France), Australian SASR, US Marine Corps Special Operations Training Group, etc.

On August 26, 1991, the National Security Council declared PASKAL as Malaysian main counter-terrorist task force for the security of oil rigs and oil tanker ships and forms one of the elements in the Quick Reaction Force (QRF).