The Defence SERE Training Organisation (DSTO) is the British joint-service training organisation for specialist survival, evasion, resistance to exploitation in captivity and preparation for recovery. Based at RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall, it is the only British organisation authorised to deliver SERE Level C. Its remit includes conduct after capture: preparing personnel at risk to protect information and retain their ability to act while under a captor’s control.
British remit and personnel
DSTO works across the British Armed Forces. In its name, SERE means Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract. Its remit connects maintaining the ability to survive with avoiding capture, resisting exploitation and taking an active part in recovery. Someone separated from their forces must carry out these tasks with whatever equipment remains after a crash, separation or another isolation event.
The required training level follows the risk of isolation and exploitation. Unit, occupation and mission profile matter, as do the individual’s knowledge and responsibilities: an adversary can exploit even a junior member of the forces for their knowledge or propaganda value. The British classification of elevated risk leads to preparation at Level B or C. Level B is delivered at unit level; Level C is delivered exclusively by DSTO.
In the NATO framework, B combines academic education with basic practical survival and evasion training and classroom resistance training. C, for high-risk personnel, includes extensive practical survival, evasion and resistance training in a strictly controlled yet realistic environment.
DSTO forms part of the Robson Academy of Resilience. The Aircrew SERE Training Centre at RAF Cranwell is a separately named establishment within the same Academy. The distinction matters to aircrew whose training pathway may involve several survival programmes: the location of an aircrew course does not itself identify it as British Level C training.
What preparation for isolation must address
In a hostile environment, sustainment and evasion are closely connected. Protection from cold or heat, water and management of limited supplies preserve the ability to move and make decisions. Reaching a resource can also reveal the individual’s position or take them into an area being searched. The isolated person must weigh the benefit of movement against its energy cost and the risk of detection. Shelter preserves physical strength; its location and the movement required to reach it also affect the risk of capture.
Survival and evasion training prepare personnel for these connected tasks. Orientation establishes their location and possible movement objectives. Observation, use of terrain and limiting signs of their activity help them assess a supply-related action or movement under threat.
Conduct after capture and resistance
Conduct after capture begins with preparation for possible capture. In captivity, the captor controls movement, contacts and access to supplies. Information and statements can be exploited for military purposes or propaganda. Resistance addresses that exploitation. DSTO provides theoretical and practical training for personnel at risk of isolation and exploitation; within the Level C framework, conduct is practised in controlled, realistic conditions.
A concrete British preparation task is protecting material that could be useful to an adversary. Before deployment, personnel need to know the precautions prescribed for their documents, codes and electronic communications or navigation devices if capture becomes imminent. Information used for subsequent authentication also needs protection. Disclosure can allow an adversary to impersonate the individual during recovery and put friendly forces at risk.
When questioned about identity, a prisoner of war gives their surname, first names, rank, date of birth and personal military number or equivalent information. These required details enable identification. Information about their mission, friendly forces or subsequent recovery and authentication is outside those identity details. The individual must therefore distinguish the required identity information from information that an adversary can use for operations or deception.
Environmental and maritime training
DSTO’s specialist fields include escape and evasion, resistance and aircrew maritime survival. Its remit also includes overseas environmental exercises, for example in jungle, desert and cold conditions. The environment determines what supplies can be obtained, how long movement can be sustained and what personal equipment is needed. An environmental qualification adds to the training required for the mission. It is not a fixed package in which every Level C participant trains in every climate.
During military student aircrew’s initial maritime survival training, DSTO introduces them to the effects of cold-water shock and sea survival. The British training framework includes life raft and life preserver drills and preparation for recovery by winch. DSTO supplies the learning specification for winching theory and demonstrations. Training equipment should reproduce the operation and dynamics of the survival equipment actually carried; participants must be current in the relevant dry drill before a wet drill.
These flying and maritime survival drills have their own requirements according to aircraft, role and mission. In the British system, underwater escape training normally takes place at the designated unit at RNAS Yeovilton. Maritime survival, underwater escape and risk-based SERE C thus meet different needs within aircrew preparation.
Instructors and specialist delivery
DSTO instructors teach theory and practical skills, run exercises and take responsibility for nominated courses under the prescribed training and safety arrangements. Experienced instructors mentor other instructors, develop their practical skills and maintain their own qualifications. A DSTO mentor post combines the general instructional qualification Defence Trainer with the specialist qualification SERE Practical Resistance Instructor. The C participant practises surviving, evading and resisting exploitation as the person at risk. The Practical Resistance Instructor delivers practical resistance instruction to other participants.
Within the Robson Academy, a SERE Training Design Authority designs training for high isolation risk. It implements directed training requirements for DSTO courses, including SERE C and environmental training. Operational risk categorisation and training needs are thus translated into the specific training tasks that DSTO subsequently teaches in theory and practice.
Preparation for recognition and recovery
DSTO also prepares personnel for their own role in personnel recovery. Before deployment, this involves the applicable recovery instructions and equipment suited to the risk and environment. Where required, an Evasion Plan of Action records intended evasion actions; an ISOPREP supports subsequent identification and authentication. The individual needs to know how to use the means actually available to communicate their position and condition, and how to respond to the prescribed recognition procedure without revealing protected information.
An exact location does not establish identity. Friendly forces need to authenticate the person before recovery because deception can endanger both the individual and the recovery force. Contact requires suitable means, a working connection and compatible procedures. Signalling must also account for the risk of detection at the individual’s location. When returning to the control of their own or friendly forces, the individual normally establishes their identity again in a final authentication.
Actual British recovery depends on the individual’s condition and mobility, available equipment, forces that can be employed, and environmental and adversary threats.