Page 31 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022 CREST

With the relentlessly busy calendar on the Commissioning Course, Ex MARTELLO SHARPSHOOTER was an opportunity for OCdts to focus entirely on Marksmanship for four days in all weather conditions. Having built up from Zeroing and Elementary Application of Fire throughout Juniors, we deployed at 0445hrs on Monday 4th April to continue with Advanced Application of fire.
Day 1 saw the intake sitting the Annual Combat Marksmanship Test, the minimum requirement for progression to more advanced range pack- ages later in the week. Divided into four sections of ten rounds in the prone, sitting, kneeling, and standing positions at 100 and 200 meters, the minimum pass mark was 7,7,6,6 with ‘Marks- man’ being awarded to any who achieved a score of at least 9,9,8,8.
Day 2 introduced us to automatic fire on the SA80, and finished with a Section in Defence range, which was the first time the section had worked together with live ammunition. I was briefed on the scenario as follows: “Your sec- tion is dug in and expecting an enemy attack in the next 10 minutes. The ground ahead is littered with walls and dead ground, providing ideal enemy approaches. The enemy strength is unknown, advancing from the beaches to the south where they have overrun friendly call- signs. These friendly forces are likely to with- draw through this area. Your section’s mission is to defend your position and to fix and delay the enemy in order to enable an aviation strike.” Complex scenarios such as this not only intro- duced elements of tactical command and plan- ning, but also brought the ranges to life, with moving targets providing a marksmanship chal- lenge and the risk of blue on blue requiring clear communication and judgement from everyone involved.
That evening, the limit of night vision not only allowed us to see the drastic effect of dark- ness on our shooting, but also clearly demon- strated how complex ranges should be run, with
OCdt Thom
rehearsals being particularly important before darkness fell.
The IBSR was the most technically demanding range, with strong gusting winds and rain chal- lenging our application of fire. With targets out to 316 meters, and firing from various positions and behind different obstacles, seeing targets drop when aiming off by several targets was hugely rewarding. We then went down a fire and manoeuvre lane with a partner, applying the skills we had developed in all our exercises to date under the supervision of the safety staff.
Overall, the range package was well structured, seeing everyone improve their marksmanship with a good amount of much-needed practice. Ex MARTELLO SHARPSHOOTER saw my fellow OCdts and me develop our skills from learning basics on the simple, sheltered ranges at Sand- hurst, to performing well in arduous weather and on complex ranges faced with challenging scenarios.
Exercise MARTELLO SHARPSHOOTER 2022
SANDHURST 29