It is one of the world’s elite fighting units, requires recruits to pass a gruelling “Hell Week” packed with extreme physical challenges – and is only open to men.
Now a woman has braved the Navy Seals’ notoriously rigorous selection process and passed with flying colours, putting the men to shame in the process.
Dr Clare Miller, 32, from London, endured hooded interrogation, sleep deprivation and “surf torture” as part of an experiment filmed for a BBC2 documentary.
So impressive was her performance, Ray Care, one of the commandos who trained her, went on to describe Miller as “the strongest candidate in the field”.
“We do this for a living and we had her picked out from the moment she turned up,” he said. “Straight away we saw she was mentally the strongest.
“She was tough and could analyse problems in a high-stress situations, which is something Special Forces do.”
Miller was one of 29 people selected to take part in Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week – an experiment that put participants through some of the tests used by the world’s elite fighting units.
In the first episode, which airs tonight, the 29 are subjected to tests used by the US Navy SEALs, while later instalments feature selection processes used by the Philippine’s NAVSOG, the Russian Spetsnaz and the UK’s SAS.
Training for the first challenge was conducted by a pair of former Navy Seals who woke the contestants with ice water after two hours sleep before subjecting them to a battery of tests.
They also endured the Seals infamous “surf torture” which involves doing hours of press-ups, push-ups and commando crawls in the sea – in this case, the chilly Irish Sea.
Despite the pain, hospital haematologist and champion duathlete Miller said she had fulfilled a lifelong ambition by taking part.
“I’ve always loved the idea of seeing whether a woman could get through SAS training,” she says.
“I agree that if you took 100 men and 100 women, a greater majority of men would be able to physically manage the tasks involved.”
Speaking in an interview with The Telegraph, she added: “When it comes to strength, the guys have perhaps got an edge.
“But, equally, we stood up as well as the guys in the mental tasks. In the interrogation task, we were at least as good. I think there are roles we would certainly be good at in the Special Forces.”
Her views, however, are not shared by Care, who, although effusive about Miller’s performance, said there are some things a woman should not do.
“There are certain things a woman should do,” he added. “Going through Navy Seal training is not one of them. I’ve told women before: stay in your lane.
“I’m not saying there’s a woman on earth who can’t do it. But from a training standpoint, men have to change and get naked in front of each other. Financially, it would make no sense because everything would have to be segregated.” – Daily Mail