Military Training, and "No Live Turn-in".

[Nazgul]

Blanks are there to make the training more realistic. Also, if you are using MILES gear the blank activates the laser kind of like laser tag.

Before my time...

Don

 

[Thor]

Before MILES it was Real Train...evaluators would come along and decide if a shot was good or not. We once had a 90mm recoiless team knock our tank out from a range of 1500m when their max effective was 500. At least it gave us the afternoon off.

 

[drillsgt]

Before my time...

Don

When was your time, MILES has been used since the 80's and is still used (somewhat).

 

[Sigblaster]

Being an uninformed Navy guy, I gotta ask.
What is the purpose of the blanks?

As someone has already pointed out, they're primarily used for training, specifically for MILES gear. Going from memory, MILES is the acronym for Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Sytem. I'm sure someone will correct me on that if I've misremembered it, as well as any acronyms I may use further in this post. Please do, btw.

Basically, like someone stated, it's like laser tag. You put on this harness that either goes over or replaces the straps that hold up your pistol belt, and it has sensors on it that will register a hit from a laser that is mounted on a weapon or a shark with a frickin' laser beam. There is also a set of sensors that you strap around your helmet that weighs approximately 47 pounds. When it registers that hit, there is this incredibily annoying beeper mounted on the harness right next to your ear that goes off, but you have a key that will turn it off (more one that later).

If you carry an M16 type rifle, you attach a BFA (blank firing adapter) to the end of your barrel, and if it's not to used and abused too much, it will use the expanding gasses from the blank to cycle the action on your rifle and activate the laser emitter, much like a live round does. The laser emitter is this box about the size of 3 packs of Marlboros that you clamp on the end of the barrel of your M16 or variant, that emits the laser beam that makes the annoying beeper go off on the harness if you hit someone. Here's where the key comes in. You have this very basic little key that you stick into the laser emitter to activate it. It's not unique at all. Every key will fit into every emitter. Also, every emitter key will fit into every beeper on the harness, by design, and specifically for that purpose.

What is supposed to happen is, when your beeper goes off, is you are a casualty, and you are supposed to take the key out of your emitter, and use it to turn off your beeper, so you are effectively dead. You are theoretically supposed to wait for an OC (obsever/controller) to come by after ENDEX (end of the exercise), and reset you with a different key.

That is what people mostly do, just sit down, turn off their beeper, and wait for ENDEX. But, sometimes, people are stupid, and run around shooting people while they're beeping, and OCs are stupid too, and open a pack of casualty cards and start randomly throwing them out without any thought to what they're doing, and training gets all F'ed up because of idiots. Ok, sorry, I was getting off onto a tangent about how most OPFOR and OCs are idiots, and that's why they're OPFOR and OCs, but that's a subject for another thead.

But now you understand a bit about MILES. I could go deeper about it, but that's the basics of the M16 part of it.

 

[Sigblaster]

When was your time, MILES has been used since the 80's and is still used (somewhat).

Have they at least reduced the weight, size of the stupid receptors, and eliminated the ridiculous cross-strap in the harness? Please tell me they're not still using that primitive 80's gear.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Have they at least reduced the weight, size of the stupid receptors, and eliminated the ridiculous cross-strap in the harness? Please tell me they're not still using that primitive 80's gear.

The MILES gear I carried 2002-2003 was nowhere near as heavy as you described in your post upstream. I'm wanting to say it was called MILES 2000. The sensors were on ALICE gear and on the helmet or in my case (OPFOR vol, not as stupid as the ones you remember ) on the floppy/boonie cap. Maybe 10 pounds if I had to guess.

I remember the staff saying it had a lot more capability than they used. It could identify who shot who, but they didn't use that.

 

[Nazgul]

When was your time, MILES has been used since the 80's and is still used (somewhat).

Early 70's to '82. Never had a chance to use a laser.

Don