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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20130108fbi-changes-focus-firearms-training.html
FBI changes focus of firearms training
By Kevin Johnson - USA Today - Jan 8, 2013
QUANTICO, Va. -- The FBI has broken with its long-standing firearms training regimen, putting a new emphasis on close-quarters combat to reflect the overwhelming number of shootings in which suspects are confronting officers at point-blank range.
New training protocols were formally implemented last January after a review of nearly 200 shootings involving FBI agents during a 17-year period. The analysis found that 75percent of the incidents involved suspects who were within 3 yards of agents when shots were exchanged.
The move represents a dramatic shift for the agency, which for more than three decades has relied on long-range marksmanship training. Apart from the new shooting regimen, agents are also being exposed to technology borrowed from Hollywood.
The technology helps agents apply skills acquired on the shooting range to virtual scenarios involving the pursuit of armed suspects in schools, office buildings, apartment complexes and other potential targets.
The virtual simulation technology, developed by Georgia-based Motion Reality Inc., won a 2005 Academy Award for technical achievement in character animation.
In its law enforcement adaptation, virtual scenarios are fed from computers in agents’ backpacks to viewfinders. This transforms an empty room into virtual worlds where agents are pitted against animated armed suspects — many of them in close-range encounters.
John Wilson, chief of the FBI’s virtual simulation program, says the system is also capable of “negatively rewarding” trainees’ bad decisions by transmitting jolts to their bodies that simulate gunshots.
FBI training instructor Larry “Pogo” Akin, who helps supervise trainees on the live-shooting range, said, “The thing that jumps out at you from the (shooting incident) research is that if we’re not preparing agents to get off three to four rounds at a target between zero and 3 yards, then we’re not preparing them for what is likely to happen in the real world.”
The FBI’s research predates more recent fatal shootings of local law enforcement officers, many of whom were victims of close-range ambush attacks while answering calls for service or serving warrants.
A Justice Department analysis of 63 killings of local police in 2011 found 7percent were ambush or execution-style assaults.
Bud Colonna, chief of the FBI’s Firearms Training Unit, said FBI Director Robert Mueller personally oversaw the live-firearm training changes, meeting with instructors at the bureau’s sprawling training facility here and taking part in the actual shooting drills.
Until last January, the pistol-qualification course required agents to participate in quarterly exercises in which they fired 50 rounds, more than half of them from between 15 and 25 yards. The new course involves 60 rounds, with 40 of those fired from between 3 and 7 yards.
The new live-fire training is separate from the virtual simulation unit, housed in a converted storage room in Quantico since its launch in February. But the missions of both training units underscore the new emphasis on armed confrontations in close quarters.
For now, the simulation system serves to teach agents the proper way to enter and clear rooms in search of potential suspects, confront armed assailants and determine when deadly force is appropriate.
“When you are in these exercises, people forget that these are virtual scenarios,” said Tom McLaughlin, Motion Reality’s chief executive. “The brain believes this is real. We make these to be as close as you would find in the real world.”
The system can build in blueprints and schematics of any known suspect hideout or hostage location.
Once built, the system would allow agents to train before launching operations against suspected targets. Until now, rehearsals for some major operations required the full or partial physical construction of target locations.
Last month, Wilson said, the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team, began using the simulator.
“The possibilities are endless,” Wilson said.
FBI changes focus of firearms training
By Kevin Johnson - USA Today - Jan 8, 2013
QUANTICO, Va. -- The FBI has broken with its long-standing firearms training regimen, putting a new emphasis on close-quarters combat to reflect the overwhelming number of shootings in which suspects are confronting officers at point-blank range.
New training protocols were formally implemented last January after a review of nearly 200 shootings involving FBI agents during a 17-year period. The analysis found that 75percent of the incidents involved suspects who were within 3 yards of agents when shots were exchanged.
The move represents a dramatic shift for the agency, which for more than three decades has relied on long-range marksmanship training. Apart from the new shooting regimen, agents are also being exposed to technology borrowed from Hollywood.
The technology helps agents apply skills acquired on the shooting range to virtual scenarios involving the pursuit of armed suspects in schools, office buildings, apartment complexes and other potential targets.
The virtual simulation technology, developed by Georgia-based Motion Reality Inc., won a 2005 Academy Award for technical achievement in character animation.
In its law enforcement adaptation, virtual scenarios are fed from computers in agents’ backpacks to viewfinders. This transforms an empty room into virtual worlds where agents are pitted against animated armed suspects — many of them in close-range encounters.
John Wilson, chief of the FBI’s virtual simulation program, says the system is also capable of “negatively rewarding” trainees’ bad decisions by transmitting jolts to their bodies that simulate gunshots.
FBI training instructor Larry “Pogo” Akin, who helps supervise trainees on the live-shooting range, said, “The thing that jumps out at you from the (shooting incident) research is that if we’re not preparing agents to get off three to four rounds at a target between zero and 3 yards, then we’re not preparing them for what is likely to happen in the real world.”
The FBI’s research predates more recent fatal shootings of local law enforcement officers, many of whom were victims of close-range ambush attacks while answering calls for service or serving warrants.
A Justice Department analysis of 63 killings of local police in 2011 found 7percent were ambush or execution-style assaults.
Bud Colonna, chief of the FBI’s Firearms Training Unit, said FBI Director Robert Mueller personally oversaw the live-firearm training changes, meeting with instructors at the bureau’s sprawling training facility here and taking part in the actual shooting drills.
Until last January, the pistol-qualification course required agents to participate in quarterly exercises in which they fired 50 rounds, more than half of them from between 15 and 25 yards. The new course involves 60 rounds, with 40 of those fired from between 3 and 7 yards.
The new live-fire training is separate from the virtual simulation unit, housed in a converted storage room in Quantico since its launch in February. But the missions of both training units underscore the new emphasis on armed confrontations in close quarters.
For now, the simulation system serves to teach agents the proper way to enter and clear rooms in search of potential suspects, confront armed assailants and determine when deadly force is appropriate.
“When you are in these exercises, people forget that these are virtual scenarios,” said Tom McLaughlin, Motion Reality’s chief executive. “The brain believes this is real. We make these to be as close as you would find in the real world.”
The system can build in blueprints and schematics of any known suspect hideout or hostage location.
Once built, the system would allow agents to train before launching operations against suspected targets. Until now, rehearsals for some major operations required the full or partial physical construction of target locations.
Last month, Wilson said, the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team, began using the simulator.
“The possibilities are endless,” Wilson said.
