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Posted: 7/19/2005 10:57:19 AM EDT
| While I know the Soviet line infantry were not know for their high standards of marksmanship, out of curiosity im trying to find out any info/sources i can about their marksmanship training. Maybe even a Russian "FM 23-9" if such an animal exists. |
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Several months ago, Ken from Red Star Arms posted a pdf English translation of the Soviet manual on engagement techniques with the AK. I didn't save a copy, but my memory is that it basically instructed soldiers to engage targets with bursts of automatic fire until destroyed. Short bursts at close range, longer bursts at targets further away. If nobody else posts it for you, I'd suggest emailing Ken to see if he still has it. |
| When I was in OCS at Ft. Lewis, one of the cadre had a huge book entitled "Russian Military Power." It was written by a couple of English gentlemen (yellow teeth, I'm sure) from Jane's. It stated that the military doctrine had not changed that much from WWII. Massed amounts of troops supporting the mechanized assault with massive firepower while running. It even showed photos of training exercises with BMP's and T-72's on the move and hundreds of troops running in and around the BMP's and tanks with their AK's firing from the hip. I don't think the small unit thing ever caught on with the Russians, and hence, probably not a whole lot of time devoted to marksmanship at the maneuver unit level. But then again-Russian sniper history is some legendary stuff. So they had to identify shooters somehow. Very good question though. I'd be very interested to find out. |
| pieceofstink, when were you at Lewis? I was there for NALC in 03 and im getting ready to PCS back there in a few weeks. I agree Ive never seen much on russian small unit tactics but I did find some pictures of marksmanship training equipment on Tantals website which leads me to belive they had some sort of formalized training on paper at least. |
| Three wars ago!! (Panama, Somalia, and Gulf #1) I did my advanced camp in '88. I'm old and crickety!! I was actually turned down by Citadel in 1984 with a 4.2 GPA and a 1260 SAT!! I was very bummed!! So I am somewhat jealous of you. I always hated running into a Citadel Grad during my service, I would almost have a nervous breakdown!! I remember seeing "Lords of Discipline" and I was hooked. But alas, I had to go through the Hippie ROTC program at ASU. |
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I know a guy who was a russian army conscript. I would guess he was in around the mid 80s. I asked him whether he had an ak-74 he said something like "I don't know, I think we had a .30cal. Is that the shittier one? If it is they gave me one of those." I definitely got the impression that if he managed to blast away in the right direction his superiors were pleased. |
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pieceofstink, If you havent yet read the book you should, even better than the movie, Charleston will always be my favorite city. Aimless, your probably right in your assumtion, although I know some of our joes even that have about the same level of knowlege of their issue weapons |
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