Military

a. Protect motor movements, assembly areas, and supply trains in bivouac.

b. Defend against hovering rotary aircraft.

c. Destroy lightly armored vehicles.

d. Fire on suspected enemy positions.

e. Provide high volumes of fire into an engagement area.

f. Cover obstacles.

g. Provide indirect fires from defilade positions.

a. Training strategies are made up of two primary components: initial training and sustainment training. Both of these may include individual and collective skills. Initial training is critical. A task that is taught correctly, and that is learned well initially, will be retained longer; performance can be more quickly regained or sustained. This means that initial training must be right. Standard, common and current procedures are used. Over time, individual and unit skills decay. The amount of decay depends on many factors that include the difficulty and complexity of the tasks. Personnel turnover is a primary factor in decay of collective skills, because the loss of critical team or crew members normally causes a need for retraining to restore unit proficiency. If too much time passes between initial and sustainment training periods, or if the established training doctrine is altered, skills will be seriously eroded and complete retraining may be required.

b. The training strategy for the MK 19 begins with leader training and continues with unit training. An example of this overall process is found in Appendix D.

c. Because MK 19 Gunner is a skill level 2 position, personnel will be trained primarily within the unit. The institution will provide a soldier trained in the basics of the MK 19, with an emphasis on "Train the Trainer". There is no training planned for IET soldiers in this system.

d. Training continues in units where basic gunnery skills are taught and gunners are qualified. Once individual and crew skills are learned, these skills must be sustained in the unit. To accomplish this, leaders must follow the annual gunnery training program outlined in Appendix D. In addition to the sustainment of skills, the unit must incorporate the system into collective training exercises such as platoon and squad live-fire STXs.

e. The strategy for sustaining basic MK 19 gunnery skills includes annual or semiannual instructional and qualification range firing. However, the unit must set up a year-round program to be able to accomplish sustainment. Key elements include training of the trainers, refresher training of preliminary skills, and use of devices for remedial training of soldiers who have trouble attaining qualification standards.

f. Additional skills trained in the unit include night firing, MOPP firing, and moving target training. Related soldier skills--camouflage, cover and concealment, fire and maneuver, and preparataion or selection of a fighting position--are addressed in this FM and must be integrated into tactical training. Tactical references are shown in the glossary.

g. In the unit, individual and leader MK 19 tasks are integrated into collective training including squad, section, and platoon drills and STXs, and company LFXs and FTXs. The tasks, conditions and standards for the collective tasks in these exercises as well as the way they are planned and conducted are found in the MTP and Drill books for the organization. Force-on-force exercises using MILES are discussed in TC 25-6. Based on the type of organization, these collective exercises are evaluated to standard leader and trainer after-action reviews. Objective evaluations of both individual and unit proficiency provide both readiness indicators and future training requirements.

h. A critical step in Army's overall MK 19 training strategy is to train-the-trainers and leaders first. Leader courses and unit publications are designed to develop the officer and NCO proficiencies necessary to plan and conduct marksmanship training and evaluate the effectiveness of unit marksmanship programs. Training support materials are provided by the proponent schools. They include: field manuals, training aids, devices, simulators and programs which serve as the doctrinal foundations and guidance for training the force.

i. FM 23-27 is organized to lead the trainer in a progressive manner through the material needed to aid him in training units. Information is presented beginning with preliminary subjects. These include mechanical training, knowledge of the gun's capabilities, and the principles and fundamentals of MK 19 gunnery. Live-fire applications are scheduled after the soldier has demonstrated these preliminary skills. Initial firing will be an instructional exercise, which ultimately leads to the soldier's ability to target the MK 19. Once the soldier understands the gun and has demonstrated sufficient skills necessary to target the gun, additional live-fire training and target-detection exercises at various ranges are conducted. Targets and target scenarios of increasing difficulty are mastered to develop proficiency. This progression and the targets are outlined in Appendix C. This initial individual training of several skills will culminate in the soldier's skill assessment, conducted on the qualification fire range. IAW the procedures specified in Appendix C, this evaluation also provides a partial view of overall unit skill and training effectiveness.

a. The MK 19 features a barrel which does not overheat, even after prolonged firing.

b. It has a blade-type front sight attached to the top cover assembly (Figure 1-3).

c. The MK 19 has a leaf-type rear sight (with an adjustable range plate) mounted on a spring dovetail base, which should be folded forward to a horizontal position when the weapon is moved, and which has, on the sight leaf, a range plate incremented in 100-meter intervals from 300 to 1500 meters. Range changes may be made using either the slide release or the elevation wheel: the slide release is used for making major changes in elevation; the elevation wheel is used for making fine adjustments (Figure 1-4). The rear sight is adjustable for windage: turning the windage screw clockwise moves the sight to the right; turning it counterclockwise moves the sight to the left. One click equals a 1-mil change.

d. The MK 19 uses 40-mm cartridges (Figure 1-5):