New BRM and Weapons Qual

[The Reaper]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/army_marksmanship_050408w/

Weapons training and qualification overhauled

By Matthew Cox - Staff writer

Posted : Sunday May 4, 2008 11:20:52 EDT

FORT BENNING, Ga. — Trainers here are testing a new marksmanship qualification course that stresses shooting from behind cover, fixing jams and changing magazines — key skills all soldiers need in combat.

The pilot program is a dramatic shift from the Army’s standard qualification course, an outdated exercise that trains soldiers on how to pass a test rather than how to master their weapons, said Col. Casey Haskins, commander of 198th Infantry Brigade. The 198th, a one-station training unit responsible for Basic Combat and Infantry Training at Benning, is overseeing sweeping changes to Basic Rifle Marksmanship.

Currently in Initial Entry Training, BRM culminates with soldiers taking a timed test in which they fire 40 rounds of ammunition at 40 pop-up targets. Firing from Cold-War-era prone and foxhole positions, trainees must hit 23 to earn a passing score.

“It focuses on meeting the minimum standard — 23 out of 40. Not too good,” Haskins said. “People train to the test ... We believe we need to teach people how to shoot.”

In the proposed qualification test, trainees would shoot a total of 30 rounds at 15 targets. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. The new test requires trainees to shoot from three firing positions — kneeling unsupported, kneeling supported and prone unsupported. They also would use available cover, change magazines, clear weapon stoppages and shoot until the targets are “dead.”
Throughout the test, shooters would be required to perform these tasks on their own rather than waiting for commands from their drill sergeants.

“If we train soldiers properly, we should trust them to change magazines when they need to, not just when they are told to,” said Capt. Jeff Marshburn, commander of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 54th Infantry Regiment of the 198th at Benning. “We should trust them to seek cover ... and establish their position based on what they have at hand and the 40-out-of-40 really doesn’t get after that.”

Marshburn, a former Special Forces sergeant, was tasked to develop the proposed new qualification course last fall. Currently, Marshburn’s trainees are qualifying on the Army’s standard course and shooting the new qualification as part of the pilot program.

By late summer, the new course “could actually be used at the IET level and could be exported to the Army if it is deemed viable,” Marshburn said.

But the retooled qualification course is only the latest piece to emerge from a marksmanship overhaul Benning launched last year to transform the way soldiers learn to shoot.

The massive effort is in line with a new concept called Outcome-Based Training, spawned by the research and analyses that led to the new operations doctrine described in the recently revised Field Manual 3-0.

Training officials at Benning said they believe this is the beginning of a cultural shift in the way the Army transforms civilian volunteers into combat soldiers.

Outcome-Based Training will replace what has come to be viewed as a strict, by-the-book training doctrine that required “little or no thinking” with a new methodology designed to prepare soldiers for combat by teaching them why things work rather than just how to follow orders.

“It’s teaching, not just training; the difference is soldiers learn why things work the way they work,” Haskins said. “The culture has to change. Our needs have changed.”

Sweeping overhaul plans include future changes to basic training and the physical fitness training, as well as to marksmanship.

ADJUSTING AIM

Perhaps the most significant changes to marksmanship that have come from the program so far deal with weapons zeroing, the process of adjusting the rifle’s sights to ensure that the bullets strike where the soldier aims on the target.

Benning officials are now teaching soldiers to set a 200-meter battle-sight zero rather than the standard 300-meter battle-sight zero, since “98 percent of all engagements” in Iraq and Afghanistan happen at 200 meters, Haskins said.

Between zero and 300 meters the bullet rises and drops six to nine inches, requiring the shooter to aim slightly lower than center-mass of the target for closer targets and slightly higher than center-mass for farther targets.

But with a 200-meter zero, the bullet only rises and drops about two inches, meaning a shooter can aim center-mass at any target out to 200 meters. For 300 meter targets, shooters aim just below the head for the bullet to strike center-mass, trainers maintain.

In addition, trainees learn to zero their weapons without the standard 25-meter zero target, a training tool used for decades that calculates exactly how many sight adjustments they need to make on their weapons to bring their bullets on target.

Instead, trainees are beginning to zero on a special bull’s-eye target and learning how to calculate their own sight adjustments using a formula known as minute-of-angle.

“My soldiers understand minutes of angle,” Marshburn said. For every click of windage on the rear sight on the M16, “it moves the strike of the round a half minute of angle, which is a half an inch at 100 yards or one inch at 200 yards.”

The program also has led to improvements to more advanced ranges, such as a fire-team live-fire course that trainees are exposed to later in training. Sand bag positions have been replaced by realistic walls, old cars and other forms of cover soldiers in infantry training will experience in the urban combat landscapes such as Iraq.

NEW WAR, NEW FOCUS

Last fall, Benning set out to revamp Army marksmanship training with a goal of shifting out of the Cold War mind-set that focused on preparing soldiers for a large-scale, defensive fight against invading Warsaw Pact armies.

“We were still training in very defensive manner and we hadn’t stepped to train in a more offensive or reactionary manner that is required of soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” Marshburn said.

In addition to drawing on their own combat experiences, trainers sought help from the Army Marksmanship Unit and the Asymmetric Warfare Group, a special unit established three years ago to help senior Army leaders find new tactics and technologies to make soldiers more lethal in combat.

Many of the changes now in use at Benning come from the training methodology these units have been teaching to combat units for the past several years. BRM for many basic trainees at Benning has changed from high-stress, tightly controlled days to a relaxed regimen that allows soldiers to become comfortable with their weapons.

“They develop a deeper understanding for mastering their weapon,” said Maj. Britton Yount, operations officer for the 198th. “It’s more of a professional instruction — that is crucial; that is a total change from how we used to do business in the past.”

Basic trainees start off “shooting slick,” meaning without combat equipment.

“We begin in a relaxed environment then add stress through more [challenges], not drill sergeants yelling at them,” Haskins said. It sounds like a radically new idea, but the Marine Corps uses a similar approach when it comes to recruit marksmanship training.

The revised Army program puts a strong emphasis on drill sergeants giving trainees one-on-one coaching to catch problems early. This requires extending BRM from 11 days to 13, but drill sergeants take only half a company at a time, leaving the other 100 trainees in the unit to train on other tasks.

The changes to the marksmanship program also require another 152 rounds of training ammunition per soldier. That’s a 32 percent increase over the 341
rounds trainees normally shoot.

Benning officials stressed that the new BRM program can be taught with only minor changes to any of the Army’s existing ranges.

“Our assumption is it can’t require construction,” Haskins said. “If it requires the commanding general to spend $10 million in range improvements, it won’t happen.”

[The Reaper]

RETRAINING SOLDIERS

Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Fort Benning’s commander and the proponent for Army marksmanship, is scheduled to decide sometime this summer on whether to adopt the marksmanship qualification test as a new Army standard.
“The hope is to validate it over the next couple of months with different companies shooting it and export it to the Army as an alternative qualification course that can be used in lieu of the 40-out-of-40,” he said.

Unlike the current test — twice a year for most active-duty soldiers, once a year for reservists — the new qualification course moves away from the one-shot-per-target mentality and forces trainees to shoot certain targets as many as three times before they fall.

This is intended to teach soldiers a crucial lesson learned from the battlefield that it often takes more than one shot to “kill a target,” Haskins said.

“Sometimes you have to shoot a guy two or three times before he dies,” he said.

The proposed qualification also forces trainees to fix stoppages on their own, a practice that the current qualification program discourages, Haskins said. “If you raise your hand and say ‘I have a malfunction and I can’t fix it,’ you get rewarded,” he said. “You get an alibi and you get more targets.”

To ensure stoppages will occur, each of the three 10-round magazines is loaded with one dummy round. It’s “thrown in there anywhere in the magazine to induce a malfunction, so the soldiers have to apply immediate action,” Marshburn said.

“The different focus we have taken with the marksmanship training has provided the soldiers with a much greater understanding of the weapons system and fundamentals of marksmanship.”

But before this marksmanship overhaul could focus on training new soldiers, it faced a bigger challenge: redesigning how it trains the older soldiers who become drill sergeants and leaders.

For the past seven months, a handful of AWG trainers have been running a five-day leader certification course. Students start from scratch and learn in the same environment they will use to instruct their young trainees.

“There is a personal feel to the training,” said 1st Sgt. Steve Walker, who is part of an Indiana Reserve training unit that makes up A Company, 1st Battalion, 198th Infantry, at Benning. “We are not just getting a block of instruction, where we go out and execute it with a bunch of commands. It has that mentor-student feel to it.”

John Porter, a retired Army sergeant major and training adviser with AWG, said the techniques he and other AWG members are teaching at Benning are the same methods he learned throughout his 22 years of service in special operations units.

The training methodology taught in the course goes beyond marksmanship, trainers maintain. It can be applied to land navigation, first aid or any other soldier skill, they said.

“When they walk away from here, they are better shooters, they are better trainers and they are better leaders,” he said.

The soft-spoken veteran wears the expression of a proud teacher when he describes how this new approach to training is forging a more capable breed of soldiers.

“It’s working like you wouldn’t believe,” he said. “In the end, with this methodology, they will be more lethal.”

Here are three shooting tips trainers are stressing as part of Fort Benning’s new approach to marksmanship:

1. Rest your magazine on the ground when shooting from the prone. This goes against years of training guidance that said this would lead to ammunition feeding problems. Not true, say professional shooters. If your weapon jams, something else is causing it. Resting the magazine on the ground while in the prone steadies the weapon as well as any sandbag, without harming the magazine or the weapon’s cycling of rounds.
———
2. Practice follow-through and reset. This is the marksmanship fundamental that follows steady position, aiming, breath control and trigger squeeze. After you shoot, hold the trigger to the rear, reacquire your target and reset the trigger by letting your finger come forward until you hear a metallic click.
Why is this important? Accomplished shooters have learned that the recoil of the weapon causes most shooters to let their finger come off the trigger after each shot. This creates a slightly different trigger squeeze every time. A consistent trigger is the key to accurate shooting. Using this technique gives the shooter more consistency and control when taking multiple shots at a target.
———
3. Use a natural point of aim. Don’t twist at the waist when sighting in on a new target from a standing position. It throws you off balance. Instead, pivot at the feet and shift your weight to a comfortable firing position.

[gagners]

This only makes sense. How many units conduct 2 kinds of ranges? We do. One for the 40/40 "qualification" and another for "combat shooting". Shouldn't ALL shooting be done with a focus on combat tasks? Why have the skills that you'll actually employ on the battlefield be the un-evaluated ones?:confused:

Thanks TR.

[incommin]

How many out there fired the old KD range with distances from 100 to 1000 yards? The targets seemed small until it was your turn to work in the butts and lift and patch those big circles..... was real rifle marksmanship taught better then??????

Jim

[Blakeslee]

I find it interesting, and useful, that in each of the 10 round mags will consist of 1 dummy round to force us to deal with stoppages.


My next question is, how will this change affect the promotion points that a soldier earns for qualifying; since this is a go/no-go system?

[kgoerz]

Seems they are implementing a SOT type stress test. Good for them

[jatx]

Shouldn't ALL shooting be done with a focus on combat tasks?

Many recruits have never fired a weapon before and need instruction in the fundamentals before moving on to practical application. It sounds to me like the normal BRM instruction will be maintained, but augmented with a module on practical skills and a new qualification test.

[Philkilla]

This is great news.

[frostfire]

"It’s teaching, not just training; the difference is soldiers learn why things work the way they work,” Haskins said. “The culture has to change. Our needs have changed.”

Here are three shooting tips trainers are stressing as part of Fort Benning’s new approach to marksmanship:

1. Rest your magazine on the ground when shooting from the prone. This goes against years of training guidance that said this would lead to ammunition feeding problems. Not true, say professional shooters. If your weapon jams, something else is causing it. Resting the magazine on the ground while in the prone steadies the weapon as well as any sandbag, without harming the magazine or the weapon’s cycling of rounds.
———
2. Practice follow-through and reset. This is the marksmanship fundamental that follows steady position, aiming, breath control and trigger squeeze. After you shoot, hold the trigger to the rear, reacquire your target and reset the trigger by letting your finger come forward until you hear a metallic click.
Why is this important? Accomplished shooters have learned that the recoil of the weapon causes most shooters to let their finger come off the trigger after each shot. This creates a slightly different trigger squeeze every time. A consistent trigger is the key to accurate shooting. Using this technique gives the shooter more consistency and control when taking multiple shots at a target.
———
3. Use a natural point of aim. Don’t twist at the waist when sighting in on a new target from a standing position. It throws you off balance. Instead, pivot at the feet and shift your weight to a comfortable firing position.

Gene Econ Sir, seems the big army is finally catching up with your training philosophy and methodology, eh? :D



Guys:

I have been thinking on this thread for a few days in fact and perhaps my observations can be of assistance concerning malfunctions drills for the issued M-16 series of weapons.

I have had the unique opportunity to watch a wide variety of soldiers go through some unique weapons training we have been conducting for two Stryker Brigades at Lewis. I have observed soldiers perform immediate action on their M-16A2s and M-4 carbines. My observations and conclusions are relatively simple but it took a while for me to figure them out and this was based on talking with said soldiers following their training.

Soldiers will perform a malfunctions drill according to their self training. 'SPORTS' is a basic drill -- most of which is unnecessary if the soldier knows what happened when it happened. One thing I will say about this drill is that it defies human nature and thus it does nothing more than cause confusion within the soldier and results in a decrease in confidence as opposed to an increase. Why does this defy human nature? Because Americans are, by our culture, very much focused on critical thinking and the first step in such a process is to 'see' the problem. Thus soldiers hesitate when being told to 'Slap, and Pull' prior to 'Observe'. Human nature is to look first and when you see someone out of AIT hesitate when he has to reduce a stoppage etc., it is because what the bureaucrats teach isn't human nature at all. Joe understands that to undo a problem, he must first know what it is and this is normally by seeing the problem prior to acting. I have noted three categories of shooter in our little world.

One is out of AIT and for him, doing what the Army taught him is primary. When what the Army taught him doesn't work, he gets seriously confused as he has never been taught to think in Basic or AIT. Cold War bureaucracy at work.

The second has some experience and isn't concerned about how someone sees him perform. However, this category lacks the confidence to critically think then act so he hesitates before he unfucks the problem. Many of the guys we have had in this cagetory have significant combat experience. Unfortunately, they have never really drawn any conclusions from this experience nor have they bothered to learn their trade in terms of setting some professional goals for themselves and then achieving those goals.

The third type is far different. These guys have significant combat experience PLUS they have learned how their weapons work. Combat experience does not necessarily relate to common sense guys. However, combine the experience with a guy who can critically think and who has spent the time to learn his profession --and you have 'The Next Level'.

Why can't I give any solutions to malfunction issues? Because guys on different levels of mental performance will do things differently. The AIT grads will do SPORTS even if the rifle is plain empty. The second classification will look then get confused for a second, then try parts of SPORTS, then fix the problem. The third level ('Next Level' as we call this) of guys hears and feels what happened based on noise and recoil and they will probably look to confirm their subconscious understanding taken in by feel and sound -- then will take the correct action and do so in a very short period of time. They went into the course of fire or drill totally aware and thus are like lightning when a problem occurs.

OK -- how can you train someone to get to the 'Next Level' in these terms? Well, if you want to spend some time and very little resources -- you can train the guys to do the right things very quickly and perfectly. Focus them on what a rifle feels and sounds like when it locks back on an empty magazine. Use various types of dummy cartridges to replicate double feeds or other failures to function and let the guys feel and hear what this is. It won't take long for them to come to some conclusions -- however we have found that you have to let guys develop their own sense of trust in what their senses are taking in.

I will say two things about the Army doctrine of SPORTS. First, it works in technical terms. Second, it fails in terms of critical thinking, cognitive development, and human nature.

So I don't know the best way to do this simple action and we don't try to influence soldiers on any best way. What we do is to ensure the soldier knows what thngs sound and feel like and then train them to trust themselves.

Esoteric? He, he, he. It works far better than incessant drills with no thought involved.

Gene

Some guys jam the magazine into the ground and use it as a kind of monopod. Some don't. It isn't any sort of doctrine from what I can tell.

Some say that placing pressure on the magazine in this manner makes for malfunctions. I don't think so as I have seen more than a few guys use this position and haven't seen any more malfunctions with them as with guys who keep the bottom of the magazine off the ground. A 30 round magazine protrudes so much that it is almost impossible to keep the bottom of it off of the ground when shooting from the prone.

Our top shooter in a course we are running right now uses his magzine as a rest on the ground when he goes prone unsupported. Haven't seen one malfunction.

I kind of look at this issue like this. The rifle and magazine were made for combat conditions. No way both could be that sensitive to the magazine being jammed into the magazine well that any extra upward pressure would cause malfunctions. Doesn't make sense to me in terms of intended purpose of the rifle and magazine which is combat.

Gene


I shot prone with the magazine jammed into the rocks and dirt as a monopod type of set up. I tried to induce a malfunction but had no malfunctions, no matter how hard I pulled back or pushed forward on the magazine.

The group size was right at 3 inches -- string after string. Very circular group but the PMJ ammo we have been shooting seems to lack those wild shots found with the Lake City M-855 so you get more of an honest assessment of accuracy with this particular PMJ ammo. I have no clue who PMJ is either.

I used a couple of techniques with the magazine firmly jammed into the rocks.

I grasped the forend in a traditional manner and pulled it back strongly into my shoulder while exerting significant force downward on the stock with my cheek and upper body. This one used a immense amount of isometric force on the carbine. I didn't envy the magazine or magazine release. That one worked out real well and I would go with it using the magazine rest technique. The dot would rise about two inches on the target directly to 12 oclock on every shot and settle right back into the aiming area. No lateral movement what so ever. This very hard position also allowed me to work that monstrous trigger pull very consistently and smoothly. Also very quickly.

Well, I shot strings while trying these various positions and got no malfunctions and saw no zero change so I figure it is a technique. I also figure it beats the crap out of the carbine's magazine release and the magazine.

I am not willing to bet money that this technique is the heat. I will have some DMs try it out a couple of times under various conditions and by doing so will get a better statistical analysis in terms of accuracy, zero changes, malfunctions, ergonomics, etc.

And that is my report for today.

Gene

Is/was there any conclusive results from having the DMs try that final technique?

[C0B2A]

Good and Needed change.. my .02 cents

[JGarcia]

I finished the National Guard Squad Designated Marksman Course last March. It is two weeks long; the first week is all iron sights, the second is all ACOG shooting.

One of the first things they taught us there (not merely suggested, but taught) was to use the magazine as a bipod, and NEVER to touch the hand guard on the fore end. To hammer the point home, they strapped a rifle down, and put a beam hit lazer in the muzzle to demonstrate the spot the muzzle was pointed on, then they put slight pressure on the fore end handguards, and showed us how the lazer spot actually moved as a result.
(M16's and M4's do not have free floating hand guards.)

We were believers after that.

So, now my magazine rests on the ground, my non firing hand grips the magazine well, pulling the weapon in tight to my shoulder, my entire trigger finger goes into the trigger. My hips are directly in line with my shoulders when I lay in the prone, so that the entire body absorbs the recoil.

They explained the natural point of aim and ensured we understood it, the explained follow through and reset. Then they went out to the range with us, and closely watched each of us, indentifying bad habits and breaking them down. After a day of coaching on the KD range, the next day I was routinely smacking the 600 yard target. Giggling like a kid. It was a great feeling.

All in all we fired about 1500 rounds, nearly each shot recorded in our record books, we learned how to make adjustments for wind with the iron sights at various ranges with different winds. The course dramatically improved my shooting. Some of the best shooting training I have ever had.

To me this new change the Army is about to execute is very welcome indeed. But I am skeptical as to how the change will get dumbed down and safety-fied when it goes out to the units.

[NoRoadtrippin]

These changes seem to be quickly affecting things here at Benning. I had the opportunity to take the AWG Combat Applications Training Course about a month ago. This is the leadership certification course that the article is discussing. John Porter, quoted in the article along with three other previous Delta Sergeants Major are the primary instructors.

It was an incredible course and it gave me great new perspective on adapting training and on continuing to come up with new, more practical ideas. Ultimately, JP and the others are only using BRM in the course as a vehicle. It is simply their chosen skill for teaching the broader skill of practical, relevant training as opposed to the old 23 out of 40 mentality (or for an officer, the death by powerpoint mentality).

On the final day of the course, COL. Haskins came out and spoke to us. He opened by asking us what the differences between this course and other Army training was. Answers focused on professionalism of the instructors, lack of verbal abuse when mistakes were made, ability to think on our own to correct mistakes, and various other details that revolved around us being treated like adults instead of just numbers. The COL's response was another question, "Why the hell is this different from regular training? Shouldn't it all be this way?"

He went on to point out a number of the changes you have all now read about in the article as well as a few other things he is working hard to change here at Benning and then looking to send outward. Personally, it was a heck of a motivating talk and made me happy to be in today's Army as a new LT.

Sidebar....Outside of BCT, we are also seeing a large part of our IOBC training altered on the ranges based on these new thoughts. Two of our PLT mentors and our BC took the course the same week I did. Also exciting.

[JCasp]

But I am skeptical as to how the change will get dumbed down and safety-fied when it goes out to the units.

Read my mind. Last week I had my annual training with my military intel reserve unit. Coming from being active duty infantry in the eighty-deuce, I was appalled at how many people spent the entire day trying to zero on the 25m target, then couldn't qualify at the range.

Most people blamed it on not having prior knowledge or training on the "new" standard of qualifying from the kneeling position, but I walked up and shot a 35 first time around. I was going to go back up to retry for expert but my 1SG pulled me aside and asked me and another infantryman (this one from 3rd bat, 75th) to go try to coach people on shooting techniques. It was astounding, people that didn't know how to maintain site picture, hold their weapon, control breating. I was shocked.

Not trying to come off in a condescending manner, but if soldiers (particularly NG, Reserve, and pogues) aren't even familiarized with the basic functioning of their rifles as well as the fundamentals of firing them, how are they expected to learn and apply techniques that are nearly thrice as complicated?

I fully support the proposal, for the record, but I am skeptical about how successful it will be taught.

[JGarcia]

Jcasp,

Start sending your guys to SDM at Camp Robinson. I think it is some of the best training you can get in the Guard. They don't have to be your best shooters either. Sometimes it's the weaker shooters that pay attention and follow instructions at SDM, we had a guy in class that was an "expert" on the BRM range but failed the SDM course, because he would not listen and follow the instructions of the cadre, consequently he could not hit shit past 300M.

The subject matter and manner of instruction down there at Camp Robinson is how shooting an M16/M4 should be taught to Soldiers, of any component.

The active army SDM course is shorter, I would not send my people there first, as I felt that after two weeks I was just getting the hang of reading wind, adjusting for the appropriate MOA/wind. I would like to add a day or two more of shooting. I don't see how you can get the same level of instruction and proficiency in five days. It's a great feeling tagging those iron maidens.

Most if not all of the instructors are Army Distinguished Shooters.

[Go Devil]

Originally posted by Jcasp.

, but if soldiers (particularly NG, Reserve, and pogues) aren't even familiarized with the basic functioning of their rifles as well as the fundamentals of firing them, how are they expected to learn and apply techniques that are nearly thrice as complicated?

Think like your 1SG and commit to sharing your experience with each "Pogue" that hasn't been educated as you have been.