thedrifter
04-20-06, 07:49 AM
Getting Serious About Shooting
by James Dunnigan
April 20, 2006
Last year, the U.S. Marine Corps introduced a new standard for weapons use standards. Marines have to fire their weapons on a range at least once a year, and meet certain skill levels while doing it, to keep their jobs. The new methods bring back a more strict standard for basic shooting accuracy (firing at the old bulls eye type target), while adding "field firing" (close range, in bad light, at moving and stationary targets resembling those you would encounter in combat.) The situation in Iraq, where so many combat-support troops find themselves firing at the enemy, forced the change. It was a change that many in the army and the marines had been advocating for a long time. But it required more time and money to train the combat-support troops for these rifle range tests. And then there was the expense of modifying the rifle ranges so the troops could be tested. In peacetime, not enough of the brass want to pay for that. As is often the case in wartime, items that seem too expensive and unnecessary in peacetime, suddenly appear as rational, urgent and very cost effective. Given another ten years of peace, and these more expensive weapons qualifications standards will disappear again.
Ellie
by James Dunnigan
April 20, 2006
Last year, the U.S. Marine Corps introduced a new standard for weapons use standards. Marines have to fire their weapons on a range at least once a year, and meet certain skill levels while doing it, to keep their jobs. The new methods bring back a more strict standard for basic shooting accuracy (firing at the old bulls eye type target), while adding "field firing" (close range, in bad light, at moving and stationary targets resembling those you would encounter in combat.) The situation in Iraq, where so many combat-support troops find themselves firing at the enemy, forced the change. It was a change that many in the army and the marines had been advocating for a long time. But it required more time and money to train the combat-support troops for these rifle range tests. And then there was the expense of modifying the rifle ranges so the troops could be tested. In peacetime, not enough of the brass want to pay for that. As is often the case in wartime, items that seem too expensive and unnecessary in peacetime, suddenly appear as rational, urgent and very cost effective. Given another ten years of peace, and these more expensive weapons qualifications standards will disappear again.
Ellie