Building Marksmanship as a Force Multiplier in our Complex World

by BG James E. Rainey

article photo

Marksmanship Master Trainer Course students utilize the Engagement Skills Trainer 2000 for grouping and zeroing. (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit photo)

The Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE) wants to ensure that when Soldiers, NCOs, and officers depart courses at Fort Benning they have achieved increased mastery of key fundamentals. The MCoE is focused on marksmanship as the first step towards developing lethal and precise Soldiers.

Marksmanship skills in our Army atrophied over years of continual ARFORGEN cycles and combat deployments. The MCoE defined desired outcomes for marksmanship to address the following training goals: develop Soldiers into expert marksmen, develop NCOs into expert marksmanship trainers, and develop officers into expert marksmanship training managers. This course uses world-class marksmanship expertise from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), it is sustainable, and it contributes toward the vision outlined in the Army Operating Concept (AOC).

The Marksmanship Master Trainer Course (MMTC) is a five-week course that trains NCOs as Marksmanship Master Trainers. The first two weeks are Level-1 to make the students technically proficient at planning and executing Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) training for ranges of 50-300m. The third week is Level-2 and does the same for Short Range Marksmanship (SRM), ranges up to 50m. The fourth week is Level-3 and makes the students proficient at Mid-Range Marksmanship (MRM), ranges 300-600m. The fifth week is Level-4 that provides students the ability to assist unit leaders in planning and implementing small arms marksmanship training strategies, qualification, maintenance, and certifying Levels 1-3 marksmanship trainers within their organization.

The MCoE completed three MMTC iterations, and a fourth MTT is scheduled for April for the XVIII Airborne Corps. Additionally, 10 courses are planned throughout FY16. The USAMU is teaching the MMTC until conditions allow a transfer of the course to the new MCoE lethality battalion, which is in 316th Cavalry Brigade. It is this Army expertise from the bullet, to the gun, to the marksman that the MCoE is leveraging to build expert marksmanship trainers in the MMTC.

The MMTC is a sustainable solution for improving marksmanship in the Army and is in the process of becoming an approved ATRRS course with an Additional Skill Identifier, so units can track qualified trainers. Mastery of marksmanship is a combat multiplier in our complex world. Contact us if you are interested in this course and let us know what you think.

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