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By Sean Rayment
One of the Royal Marines’ most senior officers has made a direct appeal to elite female athletes to consider a career as a commando.
Colonel Innes Catton, the Commandant of the Commando Training Centre, wants women to attempt one of the armed forces’ toughest selection courses, but he has warned that they will probably have to be elite athletes.
Women have been allowed to join the Royal Marines and serve in front-line combat units since 2018, but so far no officers or recruits have managed to complete the arduous 32-week commando training course.
The Royal Marines training course is one of the toughest in the armed forces outside of SAS selection, and as many as 40 per cent of those who undertake it fail.
But Colonel Catton, who runs the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines in Lympstone, Devon, believes there is still a role for women who want to earn the coveted green beret.
He spoke out amid concerns that the Royal Marines had fallen victim to a woke agenda that had resulted in the selection process becoming easier in a bid to get more women to join.
Colonel Catton, who has overall responsibility for Royal Marine recruit training, said: “Let me be really clear. No change in the commando tests.
“And I say that because they are the holy cows. The physical standards here are as arduous as they’ve ever been.”
Despite the demanding nature of the tests, Colonel Catton urged super-fit women to have a go at becoming commandos.
He added: “Most men can’t complete this training, and therefore the women that might be able to do it are extremely high-performing.
“They are out there. I wonder if they’re out there, though, already gainfully employed in the sorts of elite sports that might otherwise be more appealing to them than necessarily coming down to be a Royal Marine Commando.
“But I am rocket clear. There are women out there that could come and do this training if they were motivated enough to do it. And we have had some women recently who have come close.
“Unfortunately, they haven’t met all of the standards, but we absolutely want you.”
To successfully complete the 32-week course, any recruit would have to pass a series of gruelling physical tests including a nine-mile speed march, an aerial assault course, a time-limited cross-country obstacle run, and a 30-mile march over Dartmoor, all while carrying 21lb (9.5kg) plus a rifle.
Colonel Catton added: “The two questions commandos always used to ask in World War Two: are you here to help? Are you any good?
“Well, the third question we need to add is ‘And we want you if you’re different’. We want you if you’re different because the cognitive edge is going to be a game-changer for us going forwards.
“So whilst everyone is really drawn to the physicality of Royal Marine Commando training, understandably it is hard and it is arduous and we need hard people who can do hard things in hard places. It is so much more than the physicality.”
Royal Marines Commando training was historically only open to men, but in 2016 a ban on women serving in close combat units in the British military was lifted.
Two years later, the final hurdle was removed, opening all combat roles to women, including the Royal Marines.
At the time, it was made clear that the move was about equal opportunities for all. Large numbers of women were not expected to apply.
Ministry of Defence figures show that between 2019 and January 2025, 38,229 applications to start Royal Marines training were submitted by men, compared with 924 from women.
In the same period, 4,630 men and just seven women actually started the 32-week training course.
