SubscribeEven as more advanced and sophisticated weapons are introduced into the modern battlefield, individual soldier skills must not be neglected and in fact, are more critical than ever.
Since no advanced weapon system can replace the necessity of "soldiers on the ground", all aspects of their training must be brought into the modern era. The primary soldier skill that must be mastered is the combat critical task of marksmanship proficiency. The very lifeblood of your armed forces depends on this reality. As armed conflict and Peace keeping operations have shifted to the urban environment, soldier's possessing accurate shooting skills are more necessary than ever.
What is the best way to train your soldiers? What technological advancements are available to assist in the training of shooting skills? The reality is that most marksmanship programs don't teach and verify shooting skills before soldiers are actually shooting; they use shooting to teach shooting. In addition, most marksmanship trainers are considered to be instructors simply because they have been through the same training as the students. This will never do! Just like any skill, shooting must be approached in a logical, progressive manner; with each step being evaluated and if needed, appropriate remedial action taken.
Shooting fundamentals must be thoroughly understood and demonstrated by every soldier before they are actually shooting! It is also necessary to accurately evaluate your soldier's performance during each phase of marksmanship training; there is no room for guess work or speculation. Highly trained marksmanship trainers must be available in order to make this a reality. Fortunately, an effective, result-oriented marksmanship training program exists that can meet all of these challenges.
Integrated Rifle Marksmanship (IRM) is the product of countless hours on the competitive rifle range, real world military assignments, and thousands of successful training evolutions. The IRM program prepares soldier's with a thorough understanding of shooting fundamentals and skills. A logical progression occurs from the first to the last IRM phase; from the Introduction to Fire and Maneuver. Each IRM phase has a concise training Objective statement, performance oriented Training that is reinforced with practical exercises, and appropriate Remedial steps. In order to accurately evaluate your soldier's performance through each phase, IRM takes advantage of the fantastic capabilities inherent to the Noptel Optical Shooting system's family of training devices.
Noptel is not a newcomer to marksmanship training devices; they have been in the business since 1982 and have delivered over 9,000 units so far. These devices allow the IRM trained shooting instructor to KNOW exactly what a soldier is doing during the shooting process; "if you can SEE it - you can FIX it". Due to the very nature of the IRM program, it sets a uniform training standard (for all marksmanship training) and prepares marksmanship instructors with a thorough knowledge of shooting fundamentals and techniques; there is a difference between the two. Although the IRM program remains conceptually the same through the zeroing phase, it can be customized to meet any marksmanship training scenario from equipment to facilities.
With the Noptel and IRM, result-oriented, performance-based marksmanship training can occur inside or outdoors. Completely safe "dry-fire" can be conducted with training results that can be superior to actually shooting ammunition! Whenever needed, live fire training can be conducted with the benefit of Noptel data as well, with the added capability of realistic rehearsal maximizing safe training. The Noptel used in conjunction with the IRM program, provides the marksmanship instructor of the technology era the advanced capability necessary to adequately train soldiers in the combat critical task of marksmanship proficiency. The future of marksmanship training is here!
