Marksmanship and Small Arms Training

What Is It?

Marksmanship and small arms training is one of the primary training domains under the Human Performance, Training and Education (HPT&E) program. Not only is it a fundamental set of skills required of all Marines and Expeditionary Warfighters, but it is a complex task requiring perceptual and cognitive abilities that cross over all aspects of the training cycle.

How Does It Work?

  • Detailed task analysis at the human abilities level – documents all aspects of task performance, both physical and cognitive
  • Develop task-specific sensors that “snap-on” to an issued service weapon
  • Individual performance data fed back to coaches and trainees in real time
  • Fits both live fire and simulation environments
  • Extends to moving targets in simulation–then to robotic moving targets on the live range

What Will It Accomplish?

  • Individually-paced 5 percent improvement in basic skill acquisition, 10 percent advanced skill acquisition and 10 percent sustainment
  • Meld all aspects of small arms training into unified, multifaceted training environment that facilitates individual pacing and feedback–simulation and live range–lane training and tactical marksmanship

Marksmanship and small arms skills are fundamental to every Marine and expeditionary warfighter. Developing these skills and honing them to an expert level is difficult and expensive. HPT&E seeks to develop methodologies based on skill acquisition and learning theories that will help a novice marksman become expert at an accelerated pace and then retain that skill level over the time period when it is needed most.

The skill set is not limited to basic marksmanship– it extends to tactical movement and small arms skills where the warfighter must utilize these skills in complex environments within a team. Trainees will use their issued weapon only-never a training surrogate. Sensors will be snapped on as needed to provide unobservable feedback that will assist diagnosing and identifying the best training strategy to employ. Simulation and live fire will be integrated–never viewed as two independent training events.

Skill training culminates in a tactical level live fire exercise with shoot-back robotic targets. Office of Naval Research investment is coordinated with the Training and Education Command and Program Manager Training Systems acquisition programs with strong collaboration with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab. Key related projects:

  • Small Arms and Marksmanship Training
  • Predictive Training Transfer Toolset
  • A Smart Tutoring System Supporting Acquisition & Retention of Skills
  • Expressive Interactions for Desktop VE
  • Autonomous Robotic Adversarial Target Systems

Research Challenges and Opportunities:

  • Decrease training time from novice to qualified expert by 10 percent while increasing performance on moving targets by 25 percent
  • Develop task specific snap-on sensors that fit on the service issued weapon (not a special training weapon) that can be mixed and matched based on individual need
  • Provide detailed feedback to coaches– increase the shooter to coach ratio by 10 percent, decrease the number of coaches needed
  • Extend to live fire ranges–integrate such that individual performance data carries throughout the entire set of skill trainers

Point of Contact:

Dr. Roy Stripling
(703) 696-0364
roy.stripling@navy.mil

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