NAVAL HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER SCIENTISTS HAVE BIG IMPACT ON MARINE CORPS TRAINING

Photo By Amanda Wagner | Marksmanship and Tactical Research Program Manager, Joe Hamilton working with Marine Infantry School Instructors on Camp Pendleton Firing Range  

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES

05.12.2022

Story by John Marciano 

Naval Health Research Center

SAN DIEGO -- After a 2018 Marine Corps Rifle Marksmanship Lethality Capabilities-Based Assessment (CBA), the Marines identified deficiencies related to their marksmanship programs. These gaps included issues such as availability of relevant live-fire data, technology required to capture data at scale, and various training methods. As a result, this would become a matter for Navy research scientists to solve.

At Naval Health Research Center (NHRC), the Warfighter Performance Department stood up The Marksmanship and Tactical Research Section (MTR), led by Principal Investigator Dr. Rachel Markwald and Program Manager Mr. Joseph Hamilton. The team worked closely with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and USMC on efforts to address the core questions. Namely, not only how to improve marksmanship, but how to bridge the gap between marksmanship and lethality.

The first step was to address the data deficiency. The team created the Joint Marksmanship Assessment Package (JMAP), enhancing the evaluation by automating data capture – live fire data. The JMAP enabled granular data collection of speed and accuracy at an unprecedented scale in military training. “We found that, utilizing automation immediately saved hundreds of man hours for the Marine Corps, in acquiring and processing live fire data”, explained Dr. Markwald. Technological development supported new innovations in small arms combat modeling. A quarter-second faster here or a 10% accuracy change became a 16% increased chance of winning a firefight. More direct connection to lethality, and more actionable information for military leadership. This innovation came with a new test to explore marksmanship performance, The Infantry Marksmanship Assessment or IMA. With this new test also came an evidence-based methodology to explore training packages.

All these advancements set the stage for the true goal—delivering change desired by the Marines. USMC senior leadership ultimately selected the Advanced Marksmanship Training Program (AMTP) to be the foundation for infantry marksmanship. This package includes a curriculum with more than 28 individual modules and over 600 pages of lesson content, but as explained by Joseph Hamilton, MTR Program Lead, “AMTP leveraged lessons learned from previous research and emphasized speed, accuracy, and consistency, which are fundamental components to warfighter lethality.” AMTP also has the unique disposition as the first marksmanship program selected based on lethality evaluations. These advancements represent the most significant doctrine-level changes to infantry marksmanship training in over a century.

NHRC’s mission is to optimize military operational readiness through cutting-edge research on warfighter, veteran, and family health. NHRC supports military mission readiness with research and development that delivers high-value, high-impact solutions to the health and readiness challenges our military population faces on the battlefield, at sea, on foreign shores and at home. NHRC’s team of distinguished scientists and researchers consists of active-duty service members, federal civil service employees and contractors, whose expertise includes physiology, microbiology, psychology, epidemiology, and biomedical engineering.





-NHRC-

• Date Taken: 05.12.2022
• Date Posted: 06.10.2022 12:56
• Story ID: 420598
• Location: SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US