Written by Dave Ahearn
GCT 2011 Volume: 2 Issue: 6 (November/December)
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It’s been a while since I held an Army rifle in my hands and looked down the sights. But I got to squeeze off a few rounds during the Association of the United States Army annual meeting.
Steve Didier, CEO and owner of Phoenix RBT Solutions LLC that provides UTM, Ultimate Training Munitions, gave me the opportunity as he explained these training rounds.
The key points he made are that UTM training rounds are safe, predictable, don’t pollute for easy cleanup, and provide realistic training down to the recoil that mimics that of a live round. A trainee can use his own weapon that will be used in theater, and can fire 5.56 mm training rounds that shoot a wax projectile marker onto the target. “You train as you fight,” Didier noted.
With an aluminum base and a plastic dome, there is nothing to pollute the ground, so everything in the training round is landfill-safe, Didier explained. Because the UTM rounds are aluminum, rather than lead or zinc, and use very little propellant powder, there is no need to dispose of them as hazardous waste. Also, little propellant means less weapon-cleaning time, with cleaning needed perhaps every 1,000 rounds, he remarked.
The rounds work in all weather conditions, with projectile markers available in different colors to identify which trainee fired them.
There are numerous safety precautions. By firing only the tiny marker projectile, the dangers of firing live rounds are avoided. The bolt in the weapon is replaced with a training bolt that won’t accept live rounds. The clip also accepts only training rounds, not live ammo. Both the clip and bolt are blue, to distinguish them from the hardware capable of containing and firing live rounds. “There is no way that [the weapon] can fire a live round,” Didier emphasized.
Both Picatinny Arsenal and Aberdeen Proving Ground rate the UTM training system as 99.9 percent reliable, he said. “The accuracy is comparable to live ammo,” he added.
Oh, and how did I do in firing that weapon? Well, all of my shots hit the target in a nice, tight grouping, a pattern about the size of my thumbnail. So were they in the bull’s-eye? No way. ♦
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