Sandhurst is a globally known brand that is charged with training officers for service in the British Army. This reputation has resulted in many of the world’s armed forces sending cadets to train alongside their British colleagues. The training on offer at Sandhurst does not stand still as it must reflect the British Army’s experiences, traditions and current tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). This process is best summed up by the Sandhurst motto, ‘Serve to Lead’.
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) is responsible for training all officers for service in the British Army as well as a number of overseas students from allied and partner countries. There are three intakes each year, in January, May and September, and each course lasts for 44 weeks that are split over three terms. These terms are referred to as Junior, Intermediate and Senior. Although numbers vary per intake, the latest cohort comprises 194 officer cadets and provides a typical average indicator of numbers.
History and tradition play a large part in the culture of the British Army and so it is worth briefly placing the development of RMAS into context. Despite only being created in 1947, RMAS can trace its history back to the Royal Academy, part of the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich that was created in 1716. That organisation started formally training artillery officers in 1741. It became the Royal Military Academy (RMA) in 1764 and moved to a new home adjacent to Woolwich ranges that was known as ‘The Shop’. During that time, the RMA trained officer cadets for both the artillery and engineers. It is interesting to compare the syllabus at ‘The Shop’ during this period with the current didactic emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics).
Subjects taught in the 18th century included mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry and technical drawing – STEM by any other name! While artillery and engineer cadets benefitted from this technical training, infantry and cavalry officers relied on commissions being bought and sold. According to the military historian Alan Shepperd, this “often produced twelve-year-old ensigns who…could become colonels at twenty.” This situation was only ended in 1871 with the Cardwell Reforms that banned the purchase and sale of commissions.
Officer training for these infantry and cavalry ‘gentlemen cadets’ started in Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire in 1802 before moving to the newly-built Royal Military College (RMC) at Sandhurst in 1812. Located on the Berkshire-Surrey border, Sandhurst provided an ideal training site being adjacent to Barossa Common and at the time, the sparsely populated villages of Sandhurst, Blackwater, Bagshot and Yately.
Shepperd quotes the driving force and first Governor General of RMC, Maj Gen John Le Marchant as saying the reason for selecting the site at Sandhurst was dictated, “as to avoid a neighbourhood injurious to the morals of the cadets and which allow for military movements and the construction of military works without interruption.”
So with the amalgamation of RMA and RMC in 1947, the following decades saw all Army Officer education and training based at RMAS with the transfer of the Mons Officer Training school for Short Service Commission Officers from Aldershot in 1972. In October 1981 the Woman’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) College, Camberley relocated to RMAS. After a period of transition, WRAC Course 6 became the first to be fully resident and trained at RMAS in September 1984. Since 1992, all those being commissioned into the Regular Army – regardless of age, educational background or military experience have undertaken the 44-week regular commissioning course.
Other courses delivered at RMAS include those for Army Reserve Officers who complete a modular eight-week course alongside regular Professionally Qualified Officers (doctors, nurses, dentists, padres, lawyers and veterinary surgeons) with reservist Professionally Qualified Officers only being required to complete the last four weeks of the eight-week course.
Selection: AOSB
For individuals that want to become officers in the British Army, they need to meet a defined educational standard with A levels or ALIS (A-Level Information System) equivalent scores. If successful, the potential officer cadet will undergo an interview with a ‘local recruiter’ before attending the Army Officer Selection Board (AOSB) at Leighton House, Westbury in Wiltshire.
AOSB is divided into two phases; a two-day Briefing stage and a four-day ‘Main Board’ period. The former is really a chance for the Army to assess the individual and for the individual to prepare to move on to Main Board if they pass the Briefing phase. The selection team is looking to gauge the individual’s development potential, understand a little about what role/regiment/corps the individual aspires to join, and glean an understanding of the individual’s knowledge of current affairs and ability to ‘easily meet the fitness standards required’ that are demanded on Main Board.
As well as an interview, Briefing Day One also sees attendees undertake psychometric testing, take part in group discussions following a two-minute introduction by each candidate and conduct a planning exercise. On Day Two, candidates complete a range of physical tests and take part in both leader directed and leaderless tasks, where they are assessed by Westbury’s staff.
In its advice to potential officer cadets, the AOSB says of the Briefing period, “you’ll be taught how to prepare for your next visit, the Main Board, and assessed during physical and practical exercises.
“The AOSB Briefing is where you can start showing who you are: so be sure to arrive well-rested and well-prepared. However, don’t be worried by the tests; they’re designed to help us understand your development needs before you attend the Main Board. If your performance at Briefing shows that you’re ready for the Main Board you’ll be put forward for a place.”
Around 50% of those attending the two-day Briefing phase move on to the more demanding Main Board. On Main Board day one and following an introductory talk, potential officer cadets are subject to a battery of psychometric tests that are designed to assess cognitive capabilities and personality traits. Attendees also write a short, timed essay on current affairs and complete a Multi-Stage Fitness Test.
Day two includes group exercises in practical problem solving, an interview where the potential officer cadet is asked about his or her, “experiences and interests, and why (they) are applying to be an Army officer.” The day culminates with a tutorial and a revision period in preparation for day three’s planning exercise.
Day three is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the Main Board that the potential officer cadet has to face. Following a five-minute lecture with a Q&A session, the planning exercises follows and is described by the AOSB as, “a test of conceptual problem solving. This exercise involves a solo written assessment followed by a group discussion.” The written submission includes a focused and map-based briefing on the planning exercise and a series of open answer sheet questions where the individual has to justify their plan. The day concludes with an Individual Task course where the aim is to compete as many solo tasks as possible and then compete in group command tasks where individuals are placed in command roles for different phases or tasks. The final half-day is spent carrying out a number of competitive group command tasks.
Since 2021, AOSB for Late Entry (LE) Officers that have been selected for commissioning after normally reaching the rank of Warrant Officer, have been held at RMAS. If successful, these candidates undertake a four-week short course at Sandhurst.
Syllabus
As highlighted earlier, RMAS trains a number of different students and this diversity can be seen in Commissioning Course 252 (CC 252) that started training in 2025. Of the 194 Officer Cadets in Inkerman and Blenheim Companies, 16% are female whilst 69% are graduates. Twenty of the 194 are international cadets from 16 nations around the world.
The number of overseas cadets vary with CC 251, the previous intake, having 28 out of a total cadet cohort of 196. These 28 overseas cadets came from 17 countries including Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire and Paraguay.
The British Army has had a long relationship with many nations around the world that have trained officers at Sandhurst. The major ones include Bahrain, Malaysia, Nigeria, and The United Arab Emirates to name but a few. In all, over 5,500 international students from 132 different countries have been trained at RMAS since 1947. Students are selected by their own armed forces and applications to attend are made to the UK Ministry of Defence through the respective nation’s Defence Attaché.
RMAS is commanded by a Major General, the current incumbent being Maj Gen Nick Cowley OBE. In February 2025 the British Army adopted a new training structure that saw the Commandant RMAS also become the General officer commanding (GOC) Army Individual Training Command. This entails taking on responsibility for soldier Phase One training at Catterick, Harrogate, Pirbright and Winchester.
According to the Sandhurst Trust, “Brigadier Nick Wight-Boycott OBE will command the Academy day-to-day as one of a trio of Brigadiers reporting to the General, responsible for Sandhurst, Soldier Training and the newly created Leadership Development Group (LEDG).”
RMAS comprises two colleges: Old and New, with each being commanded by a Lt Col. Companies making up the colleges are commanded by Majors whilst platoons are commanded by Captains. Cadets spend their Junior Term in Old College, then their Intermediate and Senior Terms in New College. A third College, Victory College, is generally used to house Army Reserve Officers and Professionally Qualified Officers.
The current Common Commissioning Course, the backbone of the current syllabus, was first written in 1992 although it has been significantly modified over the years, most notably in 2015 through the adoption of Project McNamara that focused on command, leadership and management. Many of the changes generated by McNamara were driven by the British Army’s experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and drawn together in a guidance document, RMAS Group Strategy to 2030 that was published in November 2023.
The latest modification to the syllabus occurred in 2024 with the adoption of Project ADAIR. “One change in the first two weeks is that the cadets now learn what it is to be an officer and the acceptable values and standards,” the Sandhurst Trust stated in a newsletter. “This has always been part of the course but was traditionally covered much later. The new syllabus sets the standards right from the start while still emphasising basic skills and the transition from civilian to soldier.”
More time is now spent in the field on military training, while the Adventure Training courses that officer cadets undertook during the breaks at the end of terms one and two have been scrapped. The aforementioned military field training takes place locally on Barossa, and in the Black Mountains and Sennybridge; both in Wales. These exercises start by covering section drills before moving on to platoon operations and then platoon operations in a company context. The final exercise, Dynamic Victory, is conducted in Germany on the US ranges at Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels that are managed by 7 US Army Training Command. This major exercise concentrates on stabilisation operations in a coalition environment.
Another significant exercise is Templar’s Triumph that takes place at Longmoor Camp in Hampshire. This exercise focuses on peace stabilisation and COIN and features OPFOR, personnel playing civilians and press as well as including a representative from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Officer cadets are given what are referred to as Command Appointments during these field training exercises to allow the RMAS Directing Staff to evaluate their skills, knowledge, planning capacity, their delivery of orders and leadership.
As discussed earlier, the adoption of Project ADAIR resulted in an increased emphasis on field training and some of the extra time required to conduct this has come from a reduction in foot drill. That said, the Sovereign’s Parade that sees students complete their training prior to leaving as commissioned officers to conduct ‘special to arms training’, demands an extremely high standard of individual and collective drill.
Since the first parade in 1948, Sovereigns and their representatives have included HRH King George VI, HRH Queen Elizabeth II, King Abdullah of Jordan, HRH The Prince of Wales and in April 2023, King Charles III.
Although RMAS is steeped in tradition and British Army history, it embraces and welcomes new technology. An example is the Academy Drone Club that teaches officer cadets and staff the skills of flying, operating and maintaining UAVs. The club is part-funded by a charitable donation from the Sandhurst Trust who said, “with UAVs becoming increasingly prevalent on the battlefield we are helping to train the next generation of officers in this vital skill. As an indication of the emphasis of this new skill the Academy is hosting an international drone competition in September 2025.”
Possible changes?
The most recent 2 June 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) highlighted a number of changes, that if implemented, may result in future changes to the RMAS curriculum. Although early days, the SDR talks of reforming training to increase the number of commercial providers and a continuation of the Army’s policy of a more fluid structure that brings together resources and units that are tailored for a particular operational requirement.
Another stated aim of the SDR was to “breakdown single-service silos” and this perhaps implies officer cadets being exposed to joint operations much earlier in their careers than hitherto. More widely, the potential for soldiers to take gap years or pursue “zig-zag careers” where the individual might spend time in industry before returning to service have all been mooted.
Whatever the future brings, RMAS is a world-leading centre for officer training and will cope well with change as its graduates are honed to ‘Serve to Lead’.
Dr Trevor Nash
