Posted on 09/19/2020 4:52:37 PM PDT by AggregateThreat
The new Annual Rifle Qualification (ARQ) will replace Annual Rifle Training (ART) with a challenging new course of fire that forces Marines to apply basic marksmanship skills in a more dynamic environment, which will include moving targets and night shooting scenarios.
The Marine Corps marksmanship community, recognizing the need to focus on lethality instead of standard marksmanship, drafted the new ARQ course of fire in October 2018 at the annual Combat Marksmanship Symposium.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Sounds like fun.
In boot camp I barely qualified as a Marksman. But I did!
The Marine Corps are serious about marksmanship, but their known range marksmanship tables are very outdated. Years ago, the Army adopted a marksmanship program designed for combat engagments; different ranges, random targets, target hit vs. O ring scoring. If someone could blend the Army qualification system with the USMC attention to standards and high performance, you would have a winner. This sounds like what the Marines are doing. Good for them.
Good idea.
I'll never forget earning an Air Force Small Arms Marksmanship Ribbon shooting at stationary targets at various distances. Didn't seem too challenging. It wasn't.
A year later I was deployed with a US Army unit (due to certain special talents I possessed that suddenly became highly desirable to Uncle Sam). During in-transit training at an Army Post in Germany I went through an Army shooting range exercise .... with pop-up and moving targets on a simulated natural landscape and no set order as to when they appeared ... lets just say it was a bit more challenging than my USAF marksmanship range experience ...
Thats the training i want. Practical shooting courses.
Wow. It actually sounds like they are increasing standards for change. Absolutely approve. Our men in the military should spend a majority of their time perfecting killing and breaking things.
In the Navy we practiced hitting the ocean with a .50 Caliber machine gun.
....and? Waiting on the part that is supposed to make it more “difficult”...
Solid marksmanship doth cover a multitude of sins.
Am I missing something? I always viewed marksmanship and tactics as separate components. If someone has good marksmanship skills, then there is a solid foundation that can be built upon. It then makes it easier to teach tactics.
It is similar to the concept of teaching someone to spar. If you just throw them in a ring, they will likely eventually ‘figure it out’. But teaching them good basic techniques such as punch, kicking and blocking first; that learning curve is greatly reduced, and it can help to prevent the pick-up of bad habits.
According to the article, only a “destroy” hit on the target will be counted. That is a big change that will focus the shooter’s attention on firing their weapon even more accurately.
This new ARQ course assumes that the Marine already has sound marksmanship fundamentals: natural target alignment to shooting position, proper breathing, trigger control, and sight alignment. Sound marksmanship also means having spent enough time on the range shooting under instruction so that the shooter can figure out the “WHY” when they’re not hitting the target. This ARQ course is probably for Marines once they have completed traditional marksmanship training in boot camp and gone onto their fleet and base duty assignments.
From the description in the article, the course seems designed to simulate firing while closing on an enemy objective: start firing slowly at 500 meters then close in by bounds to finish with a single quick shot at 25 meters. Sort of surprised they don’t have the Marines fix bayonets and make a final assault firing and throwing flashbang and smoke grenades, just to tie a bow on it.
Of late, there is a lot of interest expressed in Marine Corps infantry circles on using suppressed weapons. Not sure how far acquisition has progressed or how broadly the suppressors will be distributed. Suppressors change weapon ballistics. So, will the Marines whose weapons routinely have suppressors mounted be required to qualify using them on at least part of the course?
LOL
My son was the platoon high shooter in basic. He is doing his re-qual this weekend. He hopes to shoot expert again, wish him luck.
Show what one motivated Marine and his rifle can do.
In Air Force Basic, we practiced putting our hands up when the piece of crap M-16 jammed on the .22LR conversion for the tenth time in 27 rounds.
They didn’t trust us to clear the jams. Given some of the guys I was shooting with, they were right not too. I had more rounds in my target than what I was given to shoot.
Changes nothing in boot camp...
Marksmanship basics are essential (in boot camp) to effectively use weapons for any type of firefight tactics... Except, possibly, when the enemy is inside the wire...
Killing the enemy without firing your weapon is another basic-training essential... At least it should be...
Course I'm biased by the fact that at Parris Island, in June 1951, we had drill instructors who had fought the japs and/or had been, recently, on the Korean Peninsular and experienced the chicom tsunami that rolled across the Yalu...
Mr. browning had his shit together.
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