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Portable shooting range targeted for Soldiers

August 26, 2011

By Spc. J.p. Lawrence, 42nd Infantry Division Public Affairs

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany -- Much like any good salesman, John Lesmerises aims to have as many of his products used as possible. Unlike those salesmen, however, Lesmerises wants his products to be shot.

Lesmerises, who works at Grafenwoehr's Joint Multinational Training Command, the U.S. Army's only training command outside the continental United States, and oversees a warehouse full of Deployable Range Packages in Germany, and if he had his way, Soldiers all over Europe and in the Middle East would call him to receive a free, portable, eco-friendly shooting range.

The Deployable Range Package, created in 2005, is an Army training aid that gives Soldiers deployed overseas everything they need to create a shooting range. All Soldiers have to do, Lesmerises stressed, is ask.

"It's 100 percent deployable, and it doesn't cost the unit anything," Lesmerises said. "They request it, and we help them figure out what kind of range they want, and then we package it all up, train the unit how to use them, and send it out to them."

"We send everything, all the ancillary equipment that it takes: hammers, nails, wood, saws, targets, safety gear, everything," said Kat Watson, Lesmerises's coworker and warehouse manager for Targetry Support Activity Europe. "Everything that you need to set up that range is in the container we ship to you."

Lesmerises, now a civilian, but once a Soldier for 14 years, said the DRP is meant to give Soldiers a place to practice their weapon skills in locations where a permanent firing range is impractical.

"As we know in the Army, Soldiers have to stay up to date on their qualifications," said Lesmerises.

Going downrange can sometimes prevent Soldiers from staying current, he said.

"With this equipment, you can be downrange fulfilling one mission, while still training the troops to make sure they're combat ready," said Lesmerises.

The equipment comes in several sizes and varieties, from the basic pop-up human-shaped target to the moving tank-shaped target. When surrounded by sandbags or placed into a pit, the devices can serve as targets for everything from small-arms fire to tank shells. Each device is powered by eight-hours of battery, which can be charged through the device's solar panels.

Controlling it all is a phonebook-sized remote control, which can direct 150 targets at a time at distances of up to 900 meters. This remote control can also direct each set of targets to pop up in an individual pattern. It also records how many times a Soldier hits a target and downloads the information onto a computer.

"The key to this equipment is that it's not just for deployment. Soldiers can check one out and use it right in their home station," said Lesmerises. "It's for their use, like any other training aid the Army has."

"We'll normally ask them for 120 days advance notice just to give us time to prepare," said Watson, "but we've put missions together in two weeks."

Lesmerises said that since 2005, approximately 17-20 packages have gone out to troops in Europe and the Middle East. Lesmerises, a veteran of the initial Iraqi invasion in 2003, said he aims to have more people know about the gear, because he wants each Soldier to be well trained in their weapons, even in the midst of deployment.
At least, that's his target.