Thanks to everyone for posting questions about joining the Army, and more specifically for those who have been using the word “Infantry” in their search terms. Following a recent question I was sent, I thought I’d give out some info about the RAINF IET course. For those who haven’t been playing along, that stands for Royal Australian INFantry Initial Employment Training. Basically, learning to be an Infantry soldier after basic training in Australia.
One of the big questions people seem to want to know is what happens IMMEDIATELY after you finish basic training at Kapooka. There’s not really a single answer to this, because it depends on the planets aligning. If your IET course is due to start within a week or two, you will probably be shipped off to wherever you’ll be doing that training.
If there’s a bigger gap, then you will probably stay at Kapooka, being given some random tasks to carry out. And if you’re SUPER DUPER lucky, you might get to take some leave – but I wouldn’t count on it.
But let’s talk about those people brave enough to join RAINF. You’ll be shipped off to sunny Singleton (aka Singo), where you’ll undergo 67 days of training. The course is broken into two modules (known as Mods in the Army). Mod 1 is “Basic Infantry Skills” while Mod 2 is “War Fighting Skills”.
Mod 1 consists of 345 periods of 40 minutes duration, with the days being 13 periods long. Notice I didn’t say “lessons”, because not all of the periods are lessons. Some will be allocated to assessments, some to retraining, some to PT and so forth.
During Mod 1, you’ll learn all sorts of great stuff like how to use weapons. Everything from the Steyr through to the 5.56mm Minimi, 7.62mm MAG 58 (I think), hand grenades, smoke grenades, flares and the Claymore mine. You’ll learn how to navigate (with map and compass), use radios and use night vision goggles. You’ll also learn about the routine and skills you need to live like an Infantryman in the field.
Mod 2 is 203 periods with 13 periods per day.
During Mod 2, you’ll learn to conduct things like patrols up to Platoon level, ambushes, offensive and defensive operations, as well as urban combat including close quarter fighting (with weapons) and building clearances.
Naturally, there’s also a fitness element involved. You’ll get naturally fit to begin with, thanks to all the running around and weight carrying you’ll be doing. One of the big ones is the obstacle course. They have an AWESOME obstacle course at Singo. Well….it’s awesome to watch – not so sure it would be so awesome to do, especially when you’re carrying weapons.
You’ll do plenty of PT (Physical Training), but it’s not just about running and lifting heavy weights. You’ll start to learn about the important of stretching, warming up and cooling down when you exercise. You’ll learn a heap of different techniques for that, as well as different stretches, what they do and how they help. You’ll even probably have some injured people as you progress, so at PT you’ll get see ‘alternative exercises’ used so that people with an injury can still participate.
With all that exercise, you’ll not only sleep REALLY well at night, but you’ll develop a bit of a love of going to the gym and seeing your body get more awesome, and your fitness improving.
So the big questions are usually: What happens if I get injured at Singo? What happens when I leave Singo? and What if I fail?
If you get injured, you’ll receive free medical treatment to either fix the injury or bring you back to the best you can be. I won’t lie and say that the Army can fix anything. If you fall off a high obstacle and break your legs, you’ll be treated and then most likely discharged. But if that kind of thing happens, you’ll get some kind of payout or even free medical treatment after you leave.
But what they CAN do is eveything from slap a bandaid on it and give you some panadol, to send you off for surgery. So don’t fret. Whatever they break, they will try to fix. Once you have treatment for your injuries, if you can continue with the training, you will. If not, you will either be transferred to a new Corps (ie: a new job) or discharged as I said before.
When you finish IETs, you will be allocated to one of the Battalions. You can look them up on Google to see who they are, what they’re role is and where they’re located. But I don’t know how much influence you will have over where you go. And let’s face it, within a 10 year career, you’ll probably do a posting to most Battalions anyway.
To answer the last question, I would say that you probably can’t just “fail Singo”. You may fail certain elements of the training, and if that’s the case, they will retrain you until you are good enough and then re-assess you. Unless you are totally hopeless at something. But if you can’t pass an element of training AT ALL, you will again either be transferred or discharged. But that’s pretty rare.
If you do really badly at Singo, they may even have you progress through the course and then join up with another group to redo the bits you failed at. Or, they might “back squad” you. That’s when they realise you’re not keeping up, so they remove you from the course you’re on, and slip you into the course that started after you did. You join their group and pick up from where you started to fail. Incidentally, this happens at Kapooka, too.
Aside from learning to be a fine-tuned killing machine, you have to pass two fitness tests: the Basic Fitness Assessment (BFA) and the Combat Fitness Assessment (CFA). The BFA is a series of push-ups, sit-ups and a 2.4km timed run. The CFA involves a Run, Dodge, Jump (RDJ) course and a timed 15km walk with your pack and section weapons.
The BFA standards are “bracketed” by age, so the older you are, the less you have to do. The CFA is a set time no matter how old you are. I’m sure that http://www.defence.gov.au will have links to the BFA and CFA standards if you’re interested, but I reckon that by the time you work your way through Singo, you won’t have any dramas at all.
Getting into red herrings now – let’s say you pass all the Infantry stuff, and in the words of Clint Eastwood, you can “put a round through a flea’s arse at 300m” but can’t manage to pass the BFA or CFA, then one of two things will happen. The CO of the Battalion where you’re destined to go will be informed, and he will decide whether he wants you “as is” or not. If so, he will take control of retraining you until you pass – or kicking you out if you can’t. OR he can say “No”, and then you stay at Singo and they train you until you pass. Or kick you out.
As usual, once Singo is over, you’ll get a posting order for your first Battalion. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! And then, depending on the cycle of the planets, you’ll either go straight there, or maybe take some leave. But the priority will be getting you there and settled in. If you’re married, then shortly after you arrive at the Battalion, you’ll get time to return home and pack up your family, where Defence will move you free-of-charge to your new unit.
So there we go. Lots and lots of info about Singo and what goes on there. Expect it to be full-on for the first few weeks. You will get the occasional weekend off, but you may or may not have drinking privelidges.
Normally, I read through my posts before publishing them. But it’s Friday before a long weekend. I’m exhausted and my post is huge, so if I made typos or missed a word somewhere, then just deal with it. BUT, if my post generated more questions, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll answer as best I can.
I’d also like to point out that any comment you leave won’t automatically appear on the site – it has to be approved by me first. So if need be, feel free to leave me your e-mail address and I can contact you directly, rather than writing a huge post like this. And remember that if you liked this post (or any others for that matter) then tell all your friends about me. I’m trying to grow my audience, so the more people that know about me, the better.
Grumpy Aussie 
Hi GA, when you say you’ll get sent off to your battalion, do you mean for more training or actual combat. I just recently decided I wanted to join the army and don’t know much so sorry if this is common knowledge. Also how long do I have to serve after completing IET, is it a set period or dependant on how many times I’ve see combat. Do I get to choose when I go overseas or do I get just get informed that i have to go and have no choice but to go?
Hi Tim,
You’ll undergo more training in the Battalion. It’s a more steady pace, and you’ll learn a LOT more than just the basics. Combat doesn’t happen in Australia, only when you head overseas. Typically, you need to serve for four years, but that can be cut short for a variety of reasons, mostly if there is an issue preventing you from continuing to serve – you can’t just decide to leave. You will go overseas when the Battalion you’re posted to deploys. From some people, that means they go regularly, because they get posted from one unit to another. But it means that some people keep missing out because they get posted from one unit to another.
Hi Grumpy Aussie,
My partner is currently in Kapooka and will march out in about a month before going to singleton. We haven’t had much phone time compared to a few blogs I’ve read and I was wondering if recruits get more free time/phone time in singleton? Would I be able to go there to visit him on weekends?
P.S. thank you for writing your posts, it has really helped me understand army life a little more and brought much needed comfort!
Good question! I’d love to say that Yes, they get more time, but that’s not guaranteed. The pace is pretty intense at Singleton for the first few weeks, and even if your partner gets free time, he may just be too exhausted to call. It doesn’t mean he’s not thinking of you though. In fact, he’ll probably be feeling guilty about being too tired to call! After the first month, he should start to get more time to call and maybe time off over the weekend. A lot of the privileges they get during IETs depends on their behaviour, so if his platoon is falling behind or doing dumb things, they may have their free time taken away. Take it week by week. Just be aware that unless you live close by, you’ll probably rent a hotel room to visit him. If so, use Google or send emails to find out which hotels offer a discount for military families. I think you’ll find that you won’t need to pay full price for a room unless you’re staying at the best hotel in town.
Thanks for letting me know that you’ve found my posts helpful. That’s why I started steering my blog this way. Joining the Army, and staying in can be a tough road both for the solider and their family. I hope you guys have a lengthy and rewarding career.
Is there anyway that i can contact you privately ?
Sure. All comments have to be approved before they appear. If you (or anyone) have a personal question, just write a normal comment and I can email you back privately
Hi Grumpy,
My son is currently at Singo and has been there since marching out from Kapooka on the 14th Oct, 2 weeks out from Xmas break tore ligaments in his foot ☹️ Had 5 weeks off and is currently in holding for 5 weeks was initially told would have to start back at week 1 however now has been told will have to do another fitness test in 6 weeks and if he passes will slot back in to week 9, is this standard practice? Also his been told his being posted to Darwin, what’s army life like in Darwin? We are from down south. Also march out from Singo do we as parents get to attend? If so what’s the procedure for us getting on base and also I’m guessing march out would be on a Friday so would we get to spend additional time with him over the weekend like you do at Kapooka etc? We have not received any info so basically clueless. Thank you
Cherie
I always enjoy hearing from parents, especially when they’re proud of what their child is doing. Obviously, I can’t speak for your son’s specific injury, but it’s absolutely normal to focus on recovery. Sometimes, that just takes longer than we’d all like. But there’s a huge risk that if he’s put back into training too soon, his issue will get worse, take even longer to heal and be more frustrating for everyone.
Once he’s fit to return to training, he can’t go back into his old platoon, because after a week has passed, they’ve moved on to the next phase of training and they’re learning new things. After 5 weeks, he’d be so far behind his mates that he wouldn’t be at their standard any more. “Back squadding” trainees after injury is standard practice. He’ll slide into a platoon who have reached the point in training that he was at when he was injured – maybe a week behind so he can have some refresher training after so long out of the course.
Darwin is a hot, humid place to live, and I hated it, lol. But some people love it. The civilian lifestyle is very laid back, Darwin is an exit point of Australia, so he’s got international travel at his doorstep. Darwin has a high Aboriginal population and that can cause issues for some people (and themselves). But every posting is what you make it. He can sit at home and wallow in his situation or he can go out with his friends and enjoy himself.
You should be able to attend the march out parade, but your son should be able to get that information for you and pass it on, especially in relation to their conditions and timings. In fact, since this kind of stuff changes often, if you do get the details, please feel free to pass them on to me so I can do a post on it.
singo is a bit more relaxed for the parents. you will get a welcome address from the platoon Lt and then some time to view the excellent inf museum. then you will be taken by bus to see the diggers in action on the obs course followed by a parade out front of the VC club and then an informal luncheon. I was fortunate to have a mate as the reviewing officer who distributed the soldiers battalion lanyards. My son was the only one to go to my, and the reviewing officers, battalion 8/9 RAR (long live Stan). it was a very special moment for the three of us and its a good day as the young men are very proud of their achievements. they will be dressed in cams and should have a static weapons display for you to have a look at their tools of the trade. MAG 58 is cool but not as cool as an M60 .hahaha
Hi grumpy
My son has just started at Singo and he is finding it a lot more enjoyable than Kapooka. I’m really liking your posts as I can relate to my time in the army as a grunt in 8/9 during the early 80’s ( God bless Stan) Given the time difference between my enlistment and my son and daughters(she a medic) things have changed a bit , but the core stuff is still relatively the same. Keep up your great work. It’s much appreciated as well as the sagely advice.
Dave
Hi Dave. Thanks for your kind words. I’m always happy to hear that I’m helping someone out there. Just remember, the Ram’s back!
And quite active lately🐏
G’day Grumpy Aussie,
Much like Tim I’m a couple of years late to this party, but my enlistment date and march in is fast approaching! Late August I get to kapooka (pretty stoked to hit the tail end of winter).
Iv been preparing physically these past few months (although I keep getting it in my head that I’m not fit enough). I easily passed the PFA, and cardio is no issue. But like Tim, push-ups seem to really be plateauing for me at about 30-35. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how you should be looking at 80 for RAINF, and that number just seems so untouchable for me right now. I am hoping kapooka sorts it out a bit, which I’m sure it will to some extent, but it’s still got me concerned the most. I think kapooka is going to be alright, because keeping your mouth shut is more important than being a beast physically, but I won’t lie singleton has me worried that I just won’t cut the mustard when it comes to the physicality. All this said, I won’t really know till I’m there and doing it.
Any advice for what sort of state I should be in pre singleton?
Cheers mate
Conrad
Hey Conrad. As you’ve hinted at in your question, don’t worry too much. At Kapooka, you only need to meet the minimum standards, but you’ll probably find that you will get better at push ups while you’re there. Singleton is the same – plenty of weight carrying and PT, so you’ll get even better. The Army will never kick you out for meeting the minimum standards, the rest is up to you. Remember that push ups are only one exercise. They’re not a true indication of your upper body strength, or your ability to carry a pack, or heavy weapons or anything else.
Hi Conrad,
It’s Tim, from the original post you were reading, I still had email notify active.
Don’t stress about push-ups I’ve been in for about 4 years now and can easily do a good 70 the day after a hard night.
You will find your strength increase quite a lot at singo due to the battle PT and just the pt regime in general, have fun ;-).
If I have any advice when your at Kapooka put in during PT sessions don’t just cruise through. Because once you hit singo pt is pretty punishing if you have been lazy at Kapooka for 12 weeks. I honestly lost fitness at Kapooka. Also don’t worry about your age I’m nearly 32 and still beat most of the younger 20 year olds at most pt, everything is more mindset than anything and most young guys haven’t even lived out of home let alone hardened up a little. As for Kapooka if your an older guy you will find most of it a joke … ie shaving lessons, a 22 year old baby faced corporal yelling/swearing at you, all I can say is have fun eating the younger guys who are freaking our morale pie.
Don’t worry about preparing so much for singo just stay fit they increase the workload and condition your body steadily.
All said and done Singo was a pretty good course looking back on it and you’ll have heaps of fun with the boys on the weekend.
Hi Tim,
Thanks mate, good to hear some perspective from current servicemen.
I’ll try to make the most of Kapooka as a large PT session to get prepped for Singo, looking forward to it 🙂
Hey Tim,
Maybe you’ll get this, maybe not. Currently at the end of week 8 at kapooka, just big bush and March out left on the schedule!
Pretty keen to get out of this place, but it hasn’t been all that hard. Definitely very achievable for all those worried about it! Singo still has me worried though I must say.
Do you know if you can have a laptop while you’re there mate? I know your downtime will usually be taken up by bush and night ex, but if there’s a possibility to have a cheeky video game I’d like that haha.
Cheers,
Conrad
Hi conrad. My son has 5 weeks left at singo. Its physically harder than kapooka so get your fitness maxxed. Yes you can have a laptop there and youll get leave most weekends.
Hey mate, after knock off time is your own to do what you like. You usually get most weekends off as well.
Enjoy the school.
Hey Grumpy,
I’m applying as a rifleman and was wondering if you could share more about life in the Battalions. What does a typical day consist of? What are some activities and exercises you get up too? How long can you be posted for? How often is your posting changed to a different battalion? I’ve heard the term “domestic deployment” used, what does that mean? How much notice is given for deployments? How does a soldier progress his “rank”? Sorry to drop all of this on you. I’m assuming it will come up in the interviews and I have heard people are rejected for failing to demonstrate an understanding of life in the Battalions. I feel that I have a good understanding of the training stages (Kapooka & IET) thanks to your posts, but Battalion life is a mystery.
Hi Jake. I could fill pages with answers to your questions, but I’ll try and give you the short version:
Daily life in a Battalion is taken up with training – usually PT in the morning followed by various skills training during the day. It could be weapons, or navigation, or radios. You could be washing vehicles, doing drill and on some days, sitting around with not much to do.
Most postings are 3 years, but on occasion you might get a “back to back” posting – two postings in the same location, although to different units. A domestic deployment is basically just going field for any period of time. If you’re deploying overseas, there’s usually heaps of notice, since there’s often some specific training you need to do before you go. To gain rank, you need to perform at your best. Positions are limited, so you need to show that you deserve it. Each Corps has it’s own process, but there will be a minimum of 2 courses you need to do, called Subject Courses. Once you’ve completed (and passed) the courses, it’s up to your unit to decide whether you should be promoted to LCPL or CPL, and after that, it’s the Career Management Agency who control your courses and promotions to SGT and above.
Hi GA,
My partner is heading off to kapoota in July an iv read everything I can so I know what he is going to be going through but I was just wondering if all is successful is there a set time frame or average to how long from singleton to his battalion?
Hey Rachel. There isn’t a specific time frame, but it’s usually pretty quick. It will depend on when the course finishes and whether he needs to come home and help pack up the house.
And I couldn’t call myself Grumpy Aussie, if I didn’t tell you off for using “iv”. That’s not a word, lol.
Hi he will most likely March out of singo on the Friday and be on a bus/plane to his new battalion the following Monday. If there is any wait time it will be in a holding platoon at singo after kapooka. When I went through I was lucky as my course started the following week. Some guys were waiting 4 weeks for their IET’s to start
Hi grumpy, I’m currently in the proceed to join up as a rifleman in the ADF and I am waiting on my assement day so I just have a few questions about that and the fitness assessment. When you get your medical it says that they take you BMI and if your over 30 you are still medically able to join but they will take a body fat percentage, does that mean if your body fat percentage is to high they will say ur unfit for service or is it just so they know exactly how much percentage is fat and muscle? Also with the fitness assessment is it very strict on the pass numbers? So if I was to do heaps of push ups and sit ups but just fell short if the beep test would I have to retest?
Your blog is the best source of Info and help that I have seen on the web (including the defence jobs website) so thank you very much for your effort. I would also like to see possibly a blog about partners and kids as I have a girlfriend and a child that’s to another mother that lives with me full time. So a blog about the partners coping with us being away for training would be awesome as I’m stumped to tell my girlfriend wat it will be like.
Hi Timothy. I’m going to answer your questions in reverse order. Firstly, there are some great websites out there about partners. My fave is http://www.armywifelessons.wordpress.com. It’s an Australian blog written by a woman whose husband joined the Army. She had no exposure to the ADF prior to his joining, so she had a steep learning curve which she shares with her readers.
As for the BMI and training, they’ve worked out that BMI is not a great way to assess soldiers, since many riflemen are all muscle. You can be 6 feet tall and solid muscle, and you will fail a BMI test, hence to body fat percentage. I’m assuming that if your body fat percentage is too high, you won’t get in.
With the training, everything is assessed separately, so if you fail any one part, you will have to do it all again. You can’t excel at one or two tests and fail another.
Hi GA
I posted here back in june( the 28 year old going rifleman), I am now only a few weeks away from getting to kapooka,
I just wanted to see if you had any last minute advice for a new recruit , also at my Fitness test the amount of people who only just passed was horrendous, the test is very easy yet so many people were underdone, should I expect to see the same at kapooka.
I’m just trying to gauge my fitness and if I will be over or undertrained. I run 5km in just over 20mins but my strength lacks 70kg at 8 reps on bench press ( I am tall but slim bodyweight is 74kg). Sit ups I can do all day but struggle to do 30 push-ups without breaking(obviously needs work), what areas do you think I need to improve on in the next 3 weeks.
Thanks
Regards
Tim
Hi Tim, great to hear from you again. And great to hear you’re getting yourself ready for Kapooka. From what you’ve told me, it sounds like you’ve set yourself up to do very very well. Your run time is excellent, and great to hear about your sit-ups. In fact (apart from your awesome run time) you sound like me when I joined. Mind you, I was 17. 6’1″, 75kg – but not quite so trim these days, lol.
You WILL need to work on your upper body strength, especially with the RAINF course looming, but don’t worry, Kapooka will help you out with that! My only advice would be to work on your upper body strength, with targeted exercises for push ups, so probably everything triceps. I’ve seen a lot of really skinny guys kick arse at push ups, so it’s not always about looking like a ‘roid muncher! And if you can’t manage all the training you need, don’t stress. In fact, it may be worth easing off for a while. Kapooka is pretty intense, so let your body rest and prepare for what’s coming, otherwise you might find yourself burning out.
A lot of people stress about being fit enough for Kapooka, but basically the ADF tailors every single course to make sure as many people succeed as possible. You will get plenty of training while you’re there, and if you struggle, they will provide extra training after hours to help out. And as you’ve already seen, there will be plenty of people in your platoon who are doing it tougher than you.
But Kapooka isn’t all about being fit or strong. There is a lot of mental stress as well. Basically, they will work at breaking everyone down so that you stop thinking about yourself, and start thinking about your team. Just remember the phrase “Right wheel, continue the wheel”. And remember you heard it hear first! lol.
Good luck at Kapooka Tim. I’m sure you’ll do fine. If you remember (or if you care), I’d appreciate you getting back to me once you’re done and let me know if my blog has been as helpful as you thought – and if there’s anything you can add to make things easier for future recruits, I’m more than happy to hear that, too.