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Paintball or 'simmunitions'? I guess it's paintball....
Canadian Forces using paintball ranges to get ready for Afghanistan
Canadian Forces train for Afghanistan at a commercial paintball range in Trois-Rivieres, Que. in November 2006. (CP/HO/CFC/Sgt. Daniel Toussaint)
NELSON WYATT
MONTREAL (CP) - Most people see a day at the paintball range as a bit of recreational fun, but for Canadian troops it's a deadly serious tool to prepare them to fight Taliban insurgents in war-torn Afghanistan.
All major militaries, including U.S. and British forces, have used training on paintball ranges to supplement combat training for their soldiers for the past few years.
Canada has facilities on its bases but in recent months soldiers in Quebec turned to a public range because the ramped up intensive training schedule and the number of troops getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan had tied up the military ranges.
The Valcartier, Que.,-based members of the Royal 22nd Regiment turned to a civilian range near Trois-Rivieres, Que., in November because it had a variety of both forest and urban-type settings.
Capt. Sebastien Hebert, who is the training officer for 5 Service Battalion, said another paintball session is being considered for this month although that would be done at a Canadian Forces facility. More traditional training follows.
"It's two sequences of training," Hebert explained. "After they do the paintball training, they do the exact same thing firing live weapons."
A first group of 300 support troops - cooks, administrative staff, truck drivers and maintenance workers - went through November's session.
"I found it excellent," said Cpl. Nasser Kouri, of the regiment's 0307 National Support Element. "Very realistic."
Kouri's regular trade is keeping the unit's vehicles in top shape but when the 28-year-old Montrealer is deployed to Afghanistan in August he has to be ready for anything.
Kouri said the exercise involved convoy drills in vehicles and so-called bush line operations, where soldiers cover each other as they advance along a trail, for instance. Tactical entry and exit from buildings and vehicles is also practised.
Instructors and sniper teams kept the soldiers on their toes.
"It was excellent because when we did the bush line, we had live targets popping up at us, we had some people firing at us with the paintball guns so it's really realistic," said Kouri, who has been in the military for five years.
The paintball exercises are useful psychological tools and can help soldiers more easily see where they went wrong or did something right in their training. Kouri said it's different from other manoeuvres where the troops fire blanks.
"If we use blanks, if I fire at the target, you won't know if I hit it," Kouri said. "If the enemy or somebody that's there is firing at me with blanks, we won't know if they hit me.
"But with the paint balls, it's more realistic. You get more of a feel for it because you can see where you're shooting and you can see if you get shot."
The military has standard paintball guns in its arsenal but also has modified C7 rifles - the same type carried in the field - that fire a high-velocity paintball round during training. However, use of that equipment is recommended for above 0 C temperatures.
Troops have used the so-called simunitions in exercises in Winnipeg and Petawawa, Ont.
After Valcartier, the troops will repeat certain aspects of their training on a U.S. base and then go to Wainwright, Alta., where they will undergo another degree of training which will use actors to simulate interaction with the Afghan population.
The intensive training is key for the support troops because they don't have the same level of ability as combat troops.
"It will be the standard now for theatre for these individuals because right now, as you've seen in Afghanistan, everybody goes outside the wire (of the base) so everybody could possibly be attacked and need to defend themselves," Hebert explained.
"This is the first time the support element has had such a big training in combat fighting experience and it went very well," said Hebert. "The troops are going to be much more confident when they go in theatre."
© The Canadian Press, 2007
Canadian Forces using paintball ranges to get ready for Afghanistan
Canadian Forces train for Afghanistan at a commercial paintball range in Trois-Rivieres, Que. in November 2006. (CP/HO/CFC/Sgt. Daniel Toussaint)
NELSON WYATT
MONTREAL (CP) - Most people see a day at the paintball range as a bit of recreational fun, but for Canadian troops it's a deadly serious tool to prepare them to fight Taliban insurgents in war-torn Afghanistan.
All major militaries, including U.S. and British forces, have used training on paintball ranges to supplement combat training for their soldiers for the past few years.
Canada has facilities on its bases but in recent months soldiers in Quebec turned to a public range because the ramped up intensive training schedule and the number of troops getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan had tied up the military ranges.
The Valcartier, Que.,-based members of the Royal 22nd Regiment turned to a civilian range near Trois-Rivieres, Que., in November because it had a variety of both forest and urban-type settings.
Capt. Sebastien Hebert, who is the training officer for 5 Service Battalion, said another paintball session is being considered for this month although that would be done at a Canadian Forces facility. More traditional training follows.
"It's two sequences of training," Hebert explained. "After they do the paintball training, they do the exact same thing firing live weapons."
A first group of 300 support troops - cooks, administrative staff, truck drivers and maintenance workers - went through November's session.
"I found it excellent," said Cpl. Nasser Kouri, of the regiment's 0307 National Support Element. "Very realistic."
Kouri's regular trade is keeping the unit's vehicles in top shape but when the 28-year-old Montrealer is deployed to Afghanistan in August he has to be ready for anything.
Kouri said the exercise involved convoy drills in vehicles and so-called bush line operations, where soldiers cover each other as they advance along a trail, for instance. Tactical entry and exit from buildings and vehicles is also practised.
Instructors and sniper teams kept the soldiers on their toes.
"It was excellent because when we did the bush line, we had live targets popping up at us, we had some people firing at us with the paintball guns so it's really realistic," said Kouri, who has been in the military for five years.
The paintball exercises are useful psychological tools and can help soldiers more easily see where they went wrong or did something right in their training. Kouri said it's different from other manoeuvres where the troops fire blanks.
"If we use blanks, if I fire at the target, you won't know if I hit it," Kouri said. "If the enemy or somebody that's there is firing at me with blanks, we won't know if they hit me.
"But with the paint balls, it's more realistic. You get more of a feel for it because you can see where you're shooting and you can see if you get shot."
The military has standard paintball guns in its arsenal but also has modified C7 rifles - the same type carried in the field - that fire a high-velocity paintball round during training. However, use of that equipment is recommended for above 0 C temperatures.
Troops have used the so-called simunitions in exercises in Winnipeg and Petawawa, Ont.
After Valcartier, the troops will repeat certain aspects of their training on a U.S. base and then go to Wainwright, Alta., where they will undergo another degree of training which will use actors to simulate interaction with the Afghan population.
The intensive training is key for the support troops because they don't have the same level of ability as combat troops.
"It will be the standard now for theatre for these individuals because right now, as you've seen in Afghanistan, everybody goes outside the wire (of the base) so everybody could possibly be attacked and need to defend themselves," Hebert explained.
"This is the first time the support element has had such a big training in combat fighting experience and it went very well," said Hebert. "The troops are going to be much more confident when they go in theatre."
© The Canadian Press, 2007
