https://www.marinecorpstimes.c...Early%20Bird%20Brief

Drastic changes coming to Marine Corps rifle qualification: Here’s what you need to know

By: Todd South   15 hours ago

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Virginia – On a windy December morning a small group of Marines with Weapons Training Battalion shot what might become the most drastic changes to the annual rifle qualification in nearly a century.

After years of feedback from marksmanship experts and operational commands across the Corps asking for a more realistic ― and shorter ― shooting qualification, a new experimental course of fire will be rolled out over the coming months.

If approved by both the community of shooting experts and command all the way to the commandant, the plan is to implement the new annual rifle qualification by 2021.

Weapons Training Battalion officials aim to gather data from 600 Marines across the force to best determine what the thresholds for qualification and the shooting badges of marksman, sharpshooter and expert.

“It will be more challenging,” Col. Howard Hall, commanding officer of Weapons Training Battalion, told Marine Corps Times.

That’s because shooters will be qualifying as they’ll fight.

They’ll wear combat gear, from helmet to body armor and shoot their assigned weapon, whether that’s an M4 or M16 or the M27.

Quick note: Recruit training marksmanship training will not change.

They’ll be drawing one third each from the ground combat element, aviation combat element and logistics combat element. And 7 percent to 10 percent of shooters will be female Marines.

One incentive for volunteering to shoot the new course is that Marines who do the three-day shooting course can take their qualification for their annual score and then forgo the one to two week annual rifle training, Hall said.

New course of fire takeaways:

No longer slick. Marines will wear combat gear, helmet and body armor to shoot.

Three days to qualify. One day of snapping in, zeroing, positions and a run through. Days two and three are the same, a prequalification and qualification day.

Badges remain the same. Scoring thresholds still being determined.

One target to rule them all. No more bull’s-eye or silhouette-style match targets. A single, exposed enemy target, the same size for all distances.

This is for the fleet Marine forces. It does not change entry marksmanship training at recruit schools.

More realistic. Moving targets, box shooting, failure to stop shots and head shots matter.

No more sitting position. Only standing, kneeling and prone. Barricades positions at short range are up to the shooter.

No more scoring on the line. Target pullers will mark destroy, neutralize, suppress or miss. Only destroys count.

Less time. The longest exposure is five rounds at 500 yards for 45 seconds. The shortest is a single round, three second head shot at 25 yards.

Starting long. Shooters will begin prequalification and qualification from the 500-yard line and work into the 25 yard line.

Night fire for score. Shooters will be evaluated on the same short bay course, from 100 yards in, at night as they shoot during the day.

Not just table I. Shooters will be shooting elements of all six tables in the overall course of fire.

In the new course, on day one Marines will run through zeroing the weapon, practicing holds and the shooting short, long and night fire courses, starting from close ranges and moving out to the 500-yard line.

Then on day two, they’ll start shooting from the 500-yard line and work their way in to the 300 yard, 200 yard, 100 yard, 25 yard and 15 yard lines. It’s the way Marines are trained to fight, close with and destroy the enemy; instead of the current method in which they begin at the shorter ranges and work backward.

That’s the entire course of fire, which they’ll repeat for qualification on day three.

Standing, kneeling and prone positions remain, but shooters can now use support. Their magazine, bipod and even rucksack can be used for support, just as it would in battle.

There’s no more sitting position, a holdover from competition match style shooting that informed the early days of Marine Corps marksmanship development.

And there won’t be any prescribed positions for barricade shooting at close ranges. If a shooter wants to stand or kneel or not use the support at all, it’s up to them.

Time might be the biggest factor. Marines now have 10 minutes to get off 10 shots from the 500-yard line.

Technically the actual shooting scenarios remain largely the same, only the course will include elements of all six tables of fire and now only uses one target, instead of the five different targets used by Marines for decades.

No more bull’s-eye-style “Able” or shoulder and head silhouette “Dog” or standing body “B-Modified" targets on the line.

The black-shirted, skull cap, sunglasses and bearded target sporting an AK-47 that Marines have grown to love to shoot will be the only target they’ll see ― from the 500 yard line to close range head shot practice.

That’s because the move is to get away from scoring and marksmanship match-style thinking and having Marines envision the lethality they’ll have to deliver when firing on human targets in combat.

To adjust the target, statistical data gathered from years of research on the lethal zones has been used to outline where on the target a bullet would cause incapacitating damage to the enemy.

There’s no more scoring rings. Marines pulling targets in the butts will simply check whether the round was a either a “destroy,” “neutralize,” “suppress” or “miss.”

Only destroys count for score.

And only the target puller is keeping track. That’s because once the clock starts to tick, the target remains exposed for the shooter to fire.

Instead of Marines firing a single round, waiting for it to be marked, noting where they hit and then adjusting fire when the target comes back up, the Marine will begin shooting once the target appears and fire until they’ve shot the rounds for that iteration.

For example, shooters have five rounds of sustained fire at 500 yards in 45 seconds. They’ll shoot all five and then set up for another iteration of five rounds. That’s the longest exposure and nearly the most rounds they’ll fire in one go.

In the short bay they’ll have to make a single, standing head shot in three seconds.

Just hitting black on a target doesn’t mean its necessarily down.

For example, data shows that people hit in the jaw will return fire, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Gunner Tony Viggiani said. So, that’s not a score if you don’t hit near the center line of the target’s head.

Cpl. Christopher Tankersley, on the range with Marine Corps Times in early December, has shot the experimental ARQ multiple times for the training battalion. The six-year Marine infantry veteran welcomes the changes.

“Our current rifle qualification is outdated, we don’t really use much of it in the Marine Corps outside of the rifle range,” Tankersley said. “Frankly, if someone’s not very good, they can still qual.”

That’s been proven by data that Weapons Training Battalion has gathered as well.

A Marine on the current annual rifle training can qualify without ever hitting black on a target. A Marine can make expert without ever hitting the target from the 500-yard line.

Marines basically return from their annual ranges, away from the unit for two or more weeks, with a score and a badge for promotion.

“Commanders across the fleet will cut out that time for training for their Marines and they will come back only marginally better, if better at all,” Hall said.

Sixty-five percent of Marines who shot the annual range in the past year qualified as expert. The Marine Corps made no scoring changes when it introduced optics to weapons qualification years ago, which resulted in a 5 percent increase in scores.

That doesn’t provide much detail for commanders to know how their Marines are shooting, said Viggiani.

Just like with a Physical Fitness Test or Combat Fitness Test, Marines will have to make minimum scores on each of the components of the annual rifle qualification, long bay, short bay and night fire.

That makes for a more complete shooter.

As director of marksmanship for the Marine Corps at Weapons Training Battalion, Viggiani also said that it will require Marine combat marksmanship coaches and trainers to better tailor their training methods and recognize that teaching Marines to shoot isn’t a one size fits all approach.

As the annual rifle qualification is being further tested, the battalion is making changes to the training courses for coaches and trainers, Hall said.

But, a lot of the work will fall on the unit training managers.

They’ll have more shooting data to look at and be able to see weak spots for their shooters before they head to the three-day range for qualification.

Lance Cpl. Evelyn Alvarez, 19, shot the annual rifle qualification for the first time on the recent Quantico, Virginia, range. She’s an administrative clerk with the training battalion.

She preferred it to the course she’d shot recently in recruit training.

“The difference between recruit training and this ARQ, I feel it’s more realistic, it will prepare every Marine, female or male, for an actual combat scenario,” she said.

Both she and Tankersley said the new adjustment was the reduced time, though all of the shooters were able to get their rounds off in the time limit.

Alvarez said an immediate difference she notice was keeping her gear in position so that she could acquire and fire on the target.

Tankersley advised shooters to give the moving targets more lead time, as they looked smaller and moved faster than the moving targets he’d shot on previous ranges.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sigmund,

Thanks for posting; interesting developments.

Any idea what the specific target that will be used in the future is? Searching online for “Marine Corps rifle target” brings up many varieties. Disregard: Got it.

So the Marines are finally going to drop the sitting position? During my Trainfire days in the mid-1960s, I would assume the sitting position for the longer distance targets that popped up while walking a course. It’s not such a great position for actual combat, but it’s the next best for accuracy when we’re not being shot at.

I also wonder how “ordinary” Marines are trained on moving targets. Does each Marine base have facilities for such training and qualifications?

And as is often true when an old system is dropped or modified, it’s only then that the old ways’ flaws are openly discussed. For example, fire one shot, have it spotted and marked, then fire another? That’s one of the USMC’s vaunted qualification practices for combat riflemen?
“[G]et away from scoring and marksmanship match-style thinking”? Yes, I would agree that that’s smart.
Making people shoot in deployment gear? Heck, even police officers are often required to do that; what a good idea!

In one of his books on killing and military combat LTC Dave Grossman claimed that the reason soldiers engaged their targets in Vietnam much more frequently than they did in WWII was because the Army switched from bull’s-eye targets to vaguely humanoid silhouettes—and that was in the mid-1950s!

I read a lot of cynical comments whenever one of the armed forces switches to a new weapon (or tries to) about all the false starts. I have noticed the same thing about training and qualifications, so it will be interesting to see if this new system will survive very long.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigfreund,

Interesting target. I'm gonna guess that scores go down in the short term as shooters get used to having to change POA's.

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
Interesting target. I'm gonna guess that scores go down in the short term as shooters get used to having to change POA's.

“Change POA”...
I’m not sure, but isn’t the Corps using ACOGs for Qual now?
If so, using the lines is going to make that easier.

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
Interesting target. I'm gonna guess that scores go down in the short term as shooters get used to having to change POA's.

“Change POA”...
I’m not sure, but isn’t the Corps using ACOGs for Qual now?
If so, using the lines is going to make that easier.

Watching the video after reading the new scoring rules makes me think that scores are going to drop in the short term. Only the 'destroy' shot is going to count for score. I assume that score is being awarded for shots that fall within the scoring zone. Unlike the bullseye target, you don't get the lower value of a larger ring, you get no score for anything other than a 'destroy' shot. Also, I've noticed that any time you introduce multiple scoring zones on a qualifying target, you get performance anxiety rearing it's ugly head. I'm not predicting a disaster, just a dip in scores as Marines adjust to the new system.

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
Interesting target. I'm gonna guess that scores go down in the short term as shooters get used to having to change POA's.

“Change POA”...
I’m not sure, but isn’t the Corps using ACOGs for Qual now?
If so, using the lines is going to make that easier.

Watching the video after reading the new scoring rules makes me think that scores are going to drop in the short term. Only the 'destroy' shot is going to count for score. I assume that score is being awarded for shots that fall within the scoring zone. Unlike the bullseye target, you don't get the lower value of a larger ring, you get no score for anything other than a 'destroy' shot. Also, I've noticed that any time you introduce multiple scoring zones on a qualifying target, you get performance anxiety rearing it's ugly head. I'm not predicting a disaster, just a dip in scores as Marines adjust to the new system.

Im reading that too.
I think a huge part in the dip will be the reduction to a 3 day period.
Unless they Qual more than once a year. That's a lot of skill that gets reduced to 3 days.


At the :42~ :43 mark, you see the box for head shots. Im assuming there's the same for center mass/chest shots. It's more realistic, more focused on combat style shooting than the old school method, I'll say that much!

https://www.military.com/daily...r-expert-badges.html

Marines’ Rifle Qualification Overhaul May Mean Fewer Expert Badges

18 Sep 2020
Military.com | By Matthew Cox

The Marine Corps expects to see fewer Marines shoot expert next year when the service fully transitions to a more realistic, combat-focused rifle qualification course.

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.

"It's more combat-style and combat-situation shooting," Chief Warrant Officer 4 Eric Brown, Weapons Training Battalion gunner at Marine Corps Installations East-Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, said in a news release.

"There was an assessment done, and we realized that the current method of rifle training and rifle qualification was not adequate to meet what the needs were on the battlefield for lethality from the Marine," he added.

The current ART qualification course, which was created in 1907, has Marines engage targets at ranges of 200, 300 and 500 yards from the sitting, kneeling, standing and prone positions. There is also a portion that focuses on short-range engagements within 25 yards.

Marines at Lejeune recently got the chance to test the ARQ course of fire, which is expected to be in use across the Corps by 2021.

During the new course of fire, shooters will wear combat gear, including ballistic helmet and body armor, while shooting their assigned weapon, whether it be an M4 carbine, M16 rifle or the M27 infantry automatic rifle. Starting at the 500-yard line, Marines work their way forward to the 15-yard line, shooting at the same target the entire course of fire.

Marines will now shoot an exposed enemy target marked with lethal zones for the head and chest, instead of the standard "able" or "dog" targets.

"There have been quite a few significant … changes. The sitting position is no longer used in the rifle qualification course of fire," Brown said in the release. "The prohibition of artificial supported positions has been removed, and the shooter can use artificial support throughout. They can use barricades, bipods, magazines or even a backpack."

During firing, Marines will no longer mark the target after each shot; instead, the shooter will fire all rounds in the time allotted. The longest firing period is 45 seconds at the 500-yard line for five shots; the shortest is three seconds to perform a headshot from the 25-yard line.

Qualification badges will remain the same, but Marine Corps officials are still determining the new scoring system, according to the release.

Under the current qualification standards, Marines fire 50 rounds, worth five points each, depending on shot placement on targets. They must earn at least 190 points for the marksman badge; at least 210 for sharpshooter; and a minimum of 220 to earn expert.

For the new ARC system, each shot will be scored as "destroy," "neutralize," "suppress" or "miss," with "destroy" being the only shot counting for points, the release states.

Brown expects that the changes under ARQ will result in a significant decrease in the number of Marines who qualify as expert, compared to 2019, when 65% of Marines scored expert under the ART system.

"I think they have made the range harder," Brown said. "We have seen the effect that the environment, with the heat and the length of time they are exposed in the elements, has had on the Marines."


-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:


No longer slick. Marines will wear combat gear, helmet and body armor to shoot.

That's surprising to me to be honest. IIRC the US Army always had us in full battle rattle when we did our rifle qualification, I recall my damn Kevlar was always trying to slip down into my eyes and having to push it back up.

^^^^
There is a difference between firing the "KD" (known distance) course for annual qualification and firing the "CMP" course (combat marksmanship program). The CMP course is with all your gear, up close, out far, night, day, gas mask on, off, etc. The standard KD qual course is about fundamentals. The CMP course of fire is different, more "practical". Kind of like running a standard PFT and running a CFT. A PFT is a standardized test of physical fitness (pull-ups, crunches, 3 mile run), the CFT is more of a "combat" fitness test (fireman carry, sprints, ammo can lift, etc).

Was talking to a friend of mine last week, he just shot the pistol qual (he is a MSgt) and got a 396/400 with his worn out Beretta (dropped 2 into the 8 ring at 25 yards). He isn't required to do the rifle qual anymore but said they are having guys run "experimental" ranges to see what it will be like. I'll see if I can get any more info but it sounds like the KD course might be morphing into a combo KD/CMP course of fire.

My opinion? This is a step backwards. Fundamental marksmanship has been a hallmark of the USMC forever. Scoring good on a KD course gave you confidence, and from that confidence grew a deadly Marine Rifleman. Running the CMP courses is good, but fundamentals will always win the day. From what I can tell the lack of "combat" marksmanship training has not put a dent in a Marine rifleman's lethality so far. See Belleau Wood for examples.

Here is a link to an older (2007) MCO 3574.2 Marine Corps Marksmanship Programs PDF. Just for reading.

A quote from the document:

"The Marine Corps’ primary mission is to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver and to repel assault by fire and close combat
during amphibious assaults and subsequent operations ashore. Combat ready Marines must be skilled in tactics and highly proficient in the
use of firearms. Well-trained Marines have the confidence required to deliver accurate fire under the most adverse battle conditions. The
rifle is the primary means by which Marines accomplish their mission."

Dam I need to frame that lol.

USMC Marksmanship Program PDF

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mbinky,