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Military

CHAPTER 7

SUSTAINMENT TRAINING PROGRAM

This chapter recommends a sustainment program for units to conduct for qualified Dragon gunners. Training should progress into collective training for applicable MTPs and field manuals. Unit commanders can get qualified Dragon gunners either from the United States Army Infantry School or from a unit-run gunner qualification program (Chapter 6 ). After completing either of these training programs, each gunner must take part in sustainment training to maintain his tracking skills.

7-1. GUNNER SUSTAINMENT TRAINING

Units conduct gunner sustainment training to maintain a high level of gunner proficiency. Training is divided into monthly, quarterly, and annual training phases.

a. Monthly Sustainment Training. Units conduct monthly training eight months of the year. The other four months, they conduct quarterly qualification or verification (on the DGT).

  • One month, gunners perform half the tasks in Table 7-1 using Firing Tables 1 and 2.

  • In alternate months, gunners perform the other half of the tasks using Firing Tables 3 and 4.

  • Each month, each gunner must score 16 out of 20 hits.

TASK NO

TASK

TNG FREQ

TIME

REMARKS

__

Explain Emergency Decontamination Procedures for an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon

M

10 min

Oral Presentation

__

Explain Emergency Destruction Procedures for an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon

M

10 min

Oral Presentation

__

Tracking Sustainment Training

M

4 hrs

Practical Exercise

071-052-0001

Maintain an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon

M1

10 min

Practical Exercise

071-052-0004

Restore an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon to Carrying Configuration

M1

5 min

Practical Exercise

071-317-3306

Perform Misfire Procedures on an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon

M1

15 min

Practical Exercise

GTA 17-2-11
GTA 17-2-13

Recognize Friendly and Threat Armored Vehicles

M2

15 min

Practical Exercise

071-052-0003

Construct a Fighting Position for an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon

M2

__

Perform as part of an ARTEP3 or FTX

071-317-3302

Prepare an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon for Firing

M2

30 sec

Practical Exercise

071-317-3324

Prepare an Antiarmor Range Card

M2

15 min

Practical Exercise

071-052-0006

Engage Targets with an M47 Medium Antitank Weapon

A

8 to 16 hrs

Practical Exercise

M = Every month

M1 = First month

M2 = Second month

A = Annually

 3 ARTEPs are available at Reimer Digital Library.

Table 7-1. Training tasks for Dragon gunners and assistant gunners.

b. Quarterly Training. Each quarter, gunners fire practice qualification (Firing Table 7) and qualification (Firing Table 8). Each table includes 20 target engagements. Gunners must complete successfully all the tasks shown in Table 7-1. Anyone who fails to verify his qualification must retrain and retest. The qualification standards follow:
19 or 20 hits — Expert
17 or 18 hits — Sharpshooter
16 hits — Marksman

c. Annual Training. The commander follows one quarterly training period a year with an annual live-fire exercise. This exercise really tests the gunners' training. Commanders must ensure that only qualified Dragon gunners fire the live missiles. They must exclude from the live-fire exercise any gunner who fails to qualify on DFTT Table 6 or DGT Table 8. Allowing unqualified gunners to fire jeopardizes everyone else present.

7-2. COLLECTIVE TRAINING

Though the Dragon MILES offers an excellent way for gunners to keep their tracking skills honed (Table 7-2), leaders must still provide sustainment training.

TRAINING
SEQUENCE		 RECOMMENDED
FREQUENCY:
TIMES PER YEAR		 EQUIPMENT
USED

Squad, platoon, or company FTX

4

Dragon/ MILES

Battalion FTX

2

Dragon/ MILES

Platoon or company MOUT exercise

1

Dragon/ MILES

Squad, platoon LFX

2

Dragon/ MILES or LTIDs (laser-target interface devices)

Externally evaluated battalion MTP

1

Dragon/ MILES

Table 7-2. MILES training program.



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