The Engagement Skills Trainer

For Tactics, Techniques and Procedures Thursday, we are going to be discussing a system that has a reputation for being more trouble than it’s worth: The Engagement Skills Trainer.

The legacy EST system was a tethered system that allowed NCO’s the capability to identify issues with their paratroopers prior to coming to the range. It had many good tools and capabilities built in that could refine the Paratrooper’s shot process. The only drawback it had, was that it was required to be hooked to the line, which degraded realism when the Paratrooper got off their belly.

The new system that has been installed on Fort Bragg is a wireless system. It fixes this issue and makes it much more realistic for use. Information on it can be found at the following link:

https://www.meggitttrainingsystems.com/Law-Enforcement/Simulation-training/BlueFire-wireless-weapon-simulators

What needs to be taken away from this is how the leaders are going to implement the use of this new system prior to qualification. All Paratroopers need to demonstrate proficiency in the scenarios outlined in the table below as a part of the new Integrated Weapons Training Strategy Table II. This can be implemented up to 6 weeks prior to the range.  Planning factor for these events is at least one day for 60 soldiers. A company would need approximately 2.5 days to get all personnel through. Leaders need to be certified prior to this on the new system as well so that they can and assess effectively what their Paratroopers are doing.

To sum up, we’ve discussed the new EST, how it is changing, how it is a mandatory part of the IWTS (table II), and how far out it can be scheduled. Next week, we will discuss more in-depth the tables and how to schedule them.

 

#weaponsmastery  #EST