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Videogames and the Army?

Well I didn't mean Black Arrow would make you a super soldier,  its just alot more fun to play.

Forget the missions if you can play Retrival on a LAN with 8 vs 8 without any lag its gotta be awsome.
 
In our reserve armory, there is a sort of video game thing, there are 2 c-7's a c-9 and a c-8 and even that litttle portable rocket launcher thing hooked up to c02  and connected to a central computer. in front there is a projected display where you see advancing enemy troops and the person on the computer can move the camera around through the treees and other obstacles as you shoot at the enemy vehicles and personell actually having to reload your weapons or unjam them( i believe the game is a training simulation and its kinda like that duck hunting game on the fist nintendo thing with the light scope )
 
What you are talking about is not a game or video game, but a real training range. Each weapon is linked to the computer and detect your breathing and trigger pressure. At the instruction center in Valcartier, Training Developement Officers (TDO) ran a trial with two groups of recruits unfamiliar with the C7 and still not qualified on it. They had one group train on this simulated range for three weeks before going to the real firing range as the other group did only the live firing range. The first group did better overall in live fire.

It was convincing enough for the CO to have all school members do their annual qualification on the C7 in the simulated range instead of spending real ammunition. Being a pretty good shooter myself I found this exercise challenging and even if this simulation does not replace a real firearm (though it simulate the movement of the rifle when firing) and the weather conditions and wind that you would find on e real range, it is good enough to insure that if you would have to fire a real C7 after going through the simulation, you would do so accurately. My own experience on it convinced me of this fact.

The best feature of it in my oppinion is that you can see for yourself how your breathing or trigger release affected your result and improve yourself right away. Of course, you still need qualified instructors, preferably small arms instructors to give you advices and adjust the weapon the same way you would do for real. And a qualified operator is essential to run the simulation adequately.
 
I don't know if you've seen the article (I'll try to find the link, my e-mail's being a female dog right now) but the military.com newsletter had an article about US troops about to be deployed use a modified version of Operation Flashpoint to simulate being in the field. Not sure if it's a massive multiplayer thing or not, but they said it was useful for the soldiers. Anyways, I'll try and remember to post the link to the article, unless someone has it.
 
a great game is Brothers In Arms....good shooter, and you use tactics to flank the enemy and what not..
 
They had one group train on this simulated range for three weeks before going to the real firing range as the other group did only the live firing range. The first group did better overall in live fire.

Did the second group who did not practice on the FATS system get 3 additional weeks of training before they were examined?
I would imagine giving the first set of shooters 3 weeks of training on the C7 would naturally give them a huge advantage even if it was not live fire. Practice is practice.

It was convincing enough for the CO to have all school members do their annual qualification on the C7 in the simulated range instead of spending real ammunition. Being a pretty good shooter myself I found this exercise challenging and even if this simulation does not replace a real firearm (though it simulate the movement of the rifle when firing) and the weather conditions and wind that you would find on e real range, it is good enough to insure that if you would have to fire a real C7 after going through the simulation, you would do so accurately. My own experience on it convinced me of this fact.

I think the FATS system is great for practice or giving soldiers weapons training if and when the range is unavailable BUT i think in no way should it replace range shooting/qualification.  Letting troops train on that before they handle the C7 for real makes sense, using it to qualify shooters isn't right IMHO.

I think many of our new soldiers (even some older ones) are almost afraid of live ammunition.  Because they hardly ever get to use it, they don't have as much confidence in themselves. Their scared of live rounds. They dont want an ND, they don't know what to do when they get a stopage, they flinch.  I think when you replace range time with indoor computer shooting time you fail to instill confidence with real live dangerous killing bullets.

I'm sure we could find something in our budget to cut back on (hockey, coffee hours, mess functions etc.) and ensure our soldiers aren't afraid of shooting live ammo.
 
Their scared of live rounds. They dont want an ND, they don't know what to do when they get a stopage, they flinch.  I think when you replace range time with indoor computer shooting time you fail to instill confidence with real live dangerous killing bullets.

The obvious solution is to have the ND early on in your career, during Basic or Battle School, do the hatless dance and get it over with, while you still have an excuse (that I was a cluless new recruit). Then in the future it doesn't seem so bad and you're no longer scared of it.  ;D
 
As part of the shoot to live program you first start out on the SAT(Small Arms Trainer) before you go to the range. That it is they way it is supposed to be done, most of the time you go to the range and straight onto the PWT.
 
I think it's either/ or. We call it FAT at our unit, while the RCD's accross the street call it SAT.
 
FATS is the name of the computor program that runs SAT(small arms trainer) ,IFT (indirect fire trainer) and the 25mm simulator.
 
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