Marine officials have recently announced a sweeping plans to redesignate the service’s rifle tables — an effort primarily designed to prevent meant to avoid confusion.
By the end of the year, several basic tables that which teach similar skills will be merged and renamed across the Corps. The move will leave Marines with so that the service will then have six unique courses of fire, of including those used during annual rifle qualifications, according to Marine administrative message MARAMIN 132/15, signed Monday.
In short, Tables 3a-3d will be merged with 4a-4d. Those eight tables, merged into four, will then be re-designated as 3, 4, 5 and 6, to prevent administrative confusion, Col. Tim Parker, commanding officer of Quantico’s Weapons Training Battalion Quantico and the Marine Corps’ marksmanship proponent told Marine Corps Times in February.
It is easier, for example, to distinguish between Table 5 and 6 rather than 4cC and 4dD.
The precise plan for instituting the changes, which were approved at the fiscal year 2014 Combat Marksmanship Symposium in April, are detailed in the message
“All commands and Marines currently required to execute the Combat Rifle CMarksmanship Program will begin implementation of tables 2-6,” it statesreads.
To aid in the roll-out, Mmarksmanship Ttraining Uunits located at installations across the globe will integrate them into their formal program of instruction and consult with regional commands. The East and West Ccoast Sschools of Iinfantry and recruit depots must also institute the changes this year.
Specific courses of fire, score cards and range commands associated with the new tables can be viewed online at Weapons Training Battalion Quantico’s website under the MPMS/File download area, a According to the message.
Until units and their supporting staff are fully trained on how to execute the updated tables of fire, units will continue to shoot and report Tables 3aA-4dD.
The message also provides guidance on procurement of the new USMC Threat Target now approved for use with Tables 2, 5 and 6. The photo-realistic target depicts a bearded man clad in black clothing, a watch cap and ballistic glasses carrying an AK-47. The target helps Marines identify targets, decide whether to shoot or hold fire, and also refines their ability to place shots where they will do the most damage to an enemy’s body.
It can already be purchased by units on the open market until it is assigned a national stock number. For additional instructions on purchasing the targets lLeaders are encouraged to contact their regional marksmanship training unit for instructions on purchasing the targets.
While the changes announced in Message 1320/15 are largely semantic, changes to the content of Table 2 are currently being considered. Those changes have received positive initial feedback by units already testing it, but whether and when it may be adopted remains uncertain.
The new tTable 2 is the latest move away from traditional bulls-eye marksmanship and towards combat marksmanship. The revised Table 2 introduces Marines earlier in their training to shoot/no-shoot scenarios, photo-realistic targets, shot placement, and firing from long to short ranges as if closing with the enemy. It forces Marines to recognize and quickly engage multiple targets. To simulate a combat environment as closely as possible, range commands will be issued similarly to commands Marines would receive as part of a fire team or squad.
Each Marine is assigned a lane or sector of fire and is responsible for engaging targets as they are exposed, said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Vince Pope, the Marine gunner who directs the Marksmanship Doctrine and Programs Management Section at Quantico, during a February interview with Marine Corps Times.
