Technology
Territorial Defence Component Takes Delivery of the First Mobile Shooting Ranges. 2 Examples per Brigade
Territorial Defence units based in Łomża, Lublin, Rzeszów and Siedlce have received the mobile container-based shooting ranges manufactured by ZM Tarnów. - Sometimes (…)it may be useful to transport the shooting range, and not to transport the soldiers to the place where they can shoot. (…) Our goal will be to provide access to the shooting ranges at the county level – stressed General Wiesław Kukuła, commander of the Territorial Defence component of the Polish Armed Forces. Not only did Kukuła point to enhancing the training capabilities for the Territorial Defence units, as the ranges could also be potentiallyutilized by the local uniformed services.
The shooting ranges have been received by light infantry battalions of the: 1st “Podlaska” Territorial Defence Brigade, 2nd “Lubelska” Territorial Defence Brigade, 3rd “Podkarpacka” Territorial Defence Brigade, and 5th “Mazowiecka” Territorial Defence Brigade. The deliveries of such shooting ranges, as the commander of the Territorial Defence component, General Wiesław Kukuła notes, shall be seen as an important step in the process of establishing an effective troop training system. Nonetheless, the ranges could also be used by other services that would be locally assigned to cooperate with the TD, including Border Guard or Police.
This is a tool given to the tactical commanders. We will be working hard to provide at least two ranges as such to each of the brigades. Mobile profile of such system allows for rotational use in every county. It is important to understand that shooting ranges would not replace field training, but they will make it possible to shape and improve the skills of the individual soldiers.
Even military garrisons often lack a shooting range, or, alternatively, the shooting ranges there often are insufficient to meet the training requirements. This is a reason for situations in which soldiers are forced to travel several kilometres to use an accessible shooting range, which was mentioned during the “Falcon – Strzelnica w Powiecie” [Hawk - Shooting Range in a County] conference. As allowing the Territorial Defence units to use the busy facilities in existence would interrupt training of other services, a decision was made to look for potential alternatives. It was assumed that the MoD would acquire container-based shooting ranges for the Territorial Defence component. This task was delegated to the Support Inspectorate of the Polish Armed Forces, which procured the relevant equipment through the 12th Military Economic Element.
Read More: Mobile Shooting Range by ZM Tarnów
The shooting ranges are manufactured by ZM Tarnów S.A. The package includes HC 40ft containers that are individually transported. A single container may be transported with the use of a standard vehicle. Setting up the range does not require any building permit, and the whole process may be accomplished in 5 hours.
The ranges may be used to enhance shooting skills with the use of personal weaponry. Facility as such allows for conducting training at distances from 5 to 50 metres with the use of combat weaponry, with calibres up to .45 ACP in case of pistols, 9 mm in case of machine pistols and 5.56 mm in case of rifles – this includes Beryl and Grot rifles used by the Territorial Defence component. The whole system is also tailored to conduct firearms training with the optronic devices involved, such as the MU-3M night vision monocular. The range features a smooth lighting adjustment system too.
The shooting range allows for carrying out numerous types of training programmes initiated via the operator’s panel, including an option of shooting moving and appearing targets, or a variety of interactive training programmes and laser simulators with recoil replication. 20 facilities as such are currently utilized all around Poland. They are used to train services subordinated to the Polish Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior and Administration.