I wonder if this is how they train soldiers in Avatar.

[Kupaton`Eywa]

EXTEREME TORTURE!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSy05OJhZ7M

[Sanmäkx]

This thread probably belongs in the Games forum.

That said, the training methods employed in the video look like pretty standard fare. They're a far cry from "extreme torture".

[Txontaw]

Yeah, generally military training is hell for a while. It helps the soldiers bond together.

[Swok Txon]

yeah and get them ready for some of the rigors of war. But they have hunters in avatar and its less regimented and more a individual goal etc. That feeling of brotherhood is a natural thing with the Na'vi with their intense spiritual beliefs etc.

[Reronsem Si]

Standard Boot Camp is pretty hectic, but no where near torture. They want to strip you down to your core and rebuild you back up as a team player, but also self sustaining. The most important aspect is to make you not freeze in combat. Teach you to the point of automatic response when the crap hits the fan. Why they yell at you, fire weapons around you and keep you up for a couple nights, so that you may get a sense of what it's like to be in the thick of it and not shut down and crawl in a corner. BUT Basic usually has a 100% graduation rate, takes a lot of work against the instructors or to have drugs to find yourself out of boot.

Spec training is where hell can begin. It all depends on the specialization you find yourself in. Some schools can be very harsh, but manageable, while others can be the smallest percentage of graduation because it's well beyond hell. Spec training is there to weed out those who can't physically do it or mentally do it.

The soldiers you find in the movie Avatar are more or less regular military. They are just mercenaries though. They still maintain a military like architecture, but don't have to abide by all the rules or protocol that regular military have to follow. Majority of the soldiers in Avatar are just regular grunts that served their time in the military and wanted to do the same, but this time making a lot more money while doing it. Didn't seem they had any Spec teams. We could see some in the following films though.

[TorukMakto!]

Such trainings are varied and depend on what unit/sqaud you going to be in, according to your profile.

[keye'ung makto]

we do know quaritch is a marine first recon member

[Hufwe Makto]

Oh god... If they have some type of super soldier at that time like master chief or something I think the na'vi could be in for an even rougher fight. Or green berets. Or rangers. Or navy seals. But not suicide bombers...

[Swok Txon]

Omg yeah green berets etc.

pfft!

Na'vi would pwn Green berets...as would the fauna!

[Hufwe Makto]

In response to the movie, those guys are ODST (I'm a halo nerd) and are the equivalent to paratroopers. No doubt they are going to have a rough time and there are going to be less graduates than in the marine core. The marines we saw tough trained for earth conditions. Pandora is different. They could still own any fat cop with donuts on the barrel of their gun. One ODST could handle a couple of swat guys, but you would need like three to take down a Na'vi on an Ikran with a bow.

Training in 2157 doesn't seem to be much different than today's. Obstacle courses, angry generals with a big gun... Terrible food...
But they NEVER train for booby traps. I would imagine that Na'vi are excellent trap makers. That is what would get the grunts. The more elite guys would get picked off by archers high up in the tree and by the animals there.

They are only safe in a tank...

[Kupaton`Eywa]

DOn't foreget the Spartans!
they're hard to kill!

[Hufwe Makto]

Especially with bows and arrows...

[Na'rìng]

You would think that specially-trained soldiers would be sent to Pandara, not just those 'meats on legs with big guns'.

[Hufwe Makto]

We only see mercenaries with minimal training because the military doesn't want to waste the better guys. Besides, I doubt that RDA can provide a paycheck to suit their needs. They would demand more money.

[Java]

with the rda it's always about the money. in the ASG i believe they mention the fact that the ballistic weapons the mercs use on pandora are outdated weapons compared to the non ballistic weaponry now found on earth.

[Hufwe Makto]

Great... The raygun era. I wonder if the guns look like the ghostbusters weapons lol

[Unilmokri]

We only see mercenaries with minimal training because the military doesn't want to waste the better guys. Besides, I doubt that RDA can provide a paycheck to suit their needs. They would demand more money.

I doubt the RDA would risk their billions of dollars worth of machinery and personel to be looked after by the minimal-trainees of the military.

We allready today see privatized military organisations in our day and age, ie. Blackwater, that offer detachments of soldiers for hire - corporations of mercenaries, basically.

Is very likely that the RDA just hires one of those to stand for security on Pandora, and if that were the case, I sincerely doubt that they'd be "shave-tailed Looies," they'd be a large group of experienced soldiers. Marines, army grunts, maybe special forces too, attracted to Pandora by the big paychecks. Pandora would be sifting through them and quite literally killing off the weak ones. As Quaritch so aptly pointed out, Pandora will s*** you out without a moments notice if you go soft there.


As for the the mercs demanding more money... I doubt even they would be denting the income of RDA space-shuttles loaded to the brim with unobtainium - selling for 20million/1kg

[Unila kelkuyu si]

We only see mercenaries with minimal training because the military doesn't want to waste the better guys. Besides, I doubt that RDA can provide a paycheck to suit their needs. They would demand more money.

They probably didn't think that they needed anything better anyway.  all they had to worry about was different animals and a bunch of savages with bows...or so they thought.  they were undoubtedly proven wrong when the Na'vi pwned their asses but it makes sense that they wouldn't send sepecialy trained soldiers into an environment where they weren't needed.

[Txur Niftxavang]

Well, I wanted to become a Marine. It didn't stand well with my parents. The thought of deployment. Nightmares of never seeing my family again. I have a very dear friend, his name is Henry, he served in the Marines, 2nd Recon battallion, 2nd Marines, 2001-2005. We don't talk about it, because I understand his shadows. After he came back, the lively spark that was in his personality was gone. I helped him overcome his demons, and I had to make a promise to him. The promise was to not join, life is too short. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather fight for my tribe anyway.                      Eywa Ayngahu! 

[Niwantaw]

if you need to go Na'vi hunting bring a baneblade
http://www.cold-moon.com/40k/Miniatures/Mortant7th/PaintedV3/Baneblade%20(1).JPG