About special fire training
In modern Russia, almost every security agency will have its own “special forces” - a group of specially selected and trained personnel involved in solving issues that require the use of special forces and equipment. Such guys are taken, for example, for the implementation of tasks associated with the risk to life. In their competence, for example, the seizure or physical elimination of terrorists and the release of hostages. The work of the “specialists” is inextricably linked with the war in its various manifestations, but the specifics of the actions of such groups are still very different from the army and do not always fit into the framework of police and police everyday life.
As in any other profession, spetsnaz fighters have their own criteria for mastery and quality work. As befits the special forces - special criteria. At special competitions, where I was particularly able to look in (unfortunately, I attended the test site only on the first of two days), specially trained people showed their skills to special judges and their “craft” colleagues. The event had the status of open competitions in special fire training and was dedicated to the memory of the security forces and military personnel who died in the performance of military duty. At the training ground, where special forces officers gathered to measure themselves, the rules adopted in IPSC were in force.
Safe shooting
Competitions began with a general construction, greetings, a brief briefing, raising the flag, awarding prizes distinguished for past services and, oddly enough, with a briefing from the chief judge of the competition, directly related to safety issues. Despite departmental affiliation, combat experience, merit and titles, the rules were the same for everyone: uncontrolled swinging weapons, moving around the landfill with a loaded weapon, not directed towards the target, and other “minor missteps” were immediately punished with a fine or could result in disqualification of the whole team.
A little running forward: one of the teams was still disqualified. The reason was, in general, a small inaccuracy - the fighter who performed the exercise involving the shooting of a pistol and a machine gun accidentally dropped his pistol. And he, to everyone's surprise, was not secured with a safety cord and fell to the ground. For the sake of fairness, I note that for all participants of the competition the pistol was equipped with a neat and functional twisted trench with a carbine. Therefore, the decision of the chief judge of the competition was unambiguous: there were no extenuating circumstances for the guilty, there will not be enough fine. A combat weapon, though not charged, but dropped from a holster, carries a potential hazard to others. What is unacceptable. And handed down a harsh verdict.
The chief judge of the competition, Kirill Kazakov (in January of this year by order of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the city of Moscow, he was awarded the qualification title “Judge of the first category”) described in detail the safety requirements adopted by the FFSR. He started with himself as a judge. It turns out that in the IPSC and in the Russian Association of Practical Shooting Judges there is a special code for judges. It begins with the words: “I, as an IPSC judge, will primarily conduct competitions, taking care of the safety of shooters and spectators. All my thoughts and actions are directed to this. ” Like this, neither subtract nor add.
As for the shooters, the code of practical shooting lists four basic rules that should be followed by everyone who takes up arms. Here they are:
I will always treat a weapon as if it were loaded.
I will never direct weapons where I do not want to shoot.
Before you shoot, I always check that before the target and behind it.
I will never touch the trigger with my finger until the barrel is aimed at the target.
These and other reasonable rules of the FPSR also operated at the test site. For example, all fighters outside exercise areas wore their pistols in a holster discharged and without stores. All training with the snatching of weapons and further "bachelor" were conducted only in a special safe zone. In addition, the judges followed the following possible violations (for more information about them you can read on the website of the All-Russian sports public organization "Federation of Practical Shooting of Russia"):
Gun arrow is in a holster with inserted magazine - equipped or not (direct violation of safety rules);
The shooter took out a pistol from a holster without a team during the passage of the match (a direct violation of safety rules);
The shooter dropped the gun during an exercise or at an intermediate time (careless handling of a weapon);
During the exercise, a random shot occurred and a bullet hit the ground closer than 3 meters from the shooter (random shot);
During the exercise, the shooter directed the barrel at an angle of more than 90 degrees relative to the line of direction to the targets (Down range) (dangerous movement with a pistol);
Shooter while reloading the store or moving from one position to another held a finger on the trigger (dangerous handling of a weapon)
During the exercise or after it, the shooter allowed himself to be rudely expressed out loud or to argue with the judge (unsportsmanlike behavior).
Running ahead again, I’ll inform you that no significant violations of the rules were revealed during the competition, all shooters were properly concerned with the security requirements, and the organizers managed to provide them with a comfortable and safe environment.
Tactical "kirzachi" and strategic foot wrappers
After building the team went to the points of issue of ammunition, where they loaded the rounds with cartridges for pistols and machine guns. A number of exercises did not limit the shooters in the amount of ammunition for personal weapons. You could shoot a lot, but you have to carry ammunition on yourself, and every extra second spent on shooting, was reflected in the final team result. In some cases, the group commanders had to break their heads and choose the most important component in each exercise - accuracy or speed. Best of all, of course, were the teams that skillfully combined both of these parameters, multiplying them by the tactical skill and experience of the commander.
It was interesting to observe the weapons and equipment of the fighters. Nothing particularly extravagant in the equipment was noted, small arms were also not shocked by the variety: the various degrees of AK customization of several series, the guns of Yarygin and Stechkin. Automatic with additional handles, tactical belts, unusual muzzle brakes, flame arresters. The under-barrel lanterns were presented, among others, by Chinese samples: Fenix tactical flashlights with a remote button were described by the owners as “worth their money”. If you add Canadian collimator sights to the Chinese lanterns, Israeli handles of fire control and it is not known whose telescope butts and flame arresters we get exactly the very personal weapon that has been customized for a particular shooter. Some machines were fully or partially camouflaged. On some managed to notice LCC and PBS. Shops to AK also met non-standard: with transparent inserts, indicators and American rubber “grips” Magpul, facilitating the removal of the store from the “unloading”. Some exercises directly forbade the dumping of empty stores to the ground, because among other ammunition the participants of the competition carried on themselves a special container for empty stores.
A very, very conspicuous variety of shoes. Basically, the fighters' legs were tightly laced into so-called tactical boots, which are a successful cross between the well-known “berets” and sneakers: tall, thick, well-made from good-quality materials, with durable soles and deftly sitting on the leg. Strictly speaking, the English term tactical, used here for marketing purposes, has no exact correspondence in Russian. So all sorts of tactical shoes, clothes, knives and even bottle openers (there are such ones - Ace Rail Hook Sling Mount / Tactical Bottle Opener) can be called adjectives “assault, combat, field, army” in relation to the situation. As you like. The price tag for such "tactical" or "assault" products of foreign production, of course, is not humane, but modern wind and moisture-proof breathing materials that provide an extra bit of comfort are expensive. There were, of course, adherents of the extremes who preferred only sneakers or, on the contrary, budgetary high army “berets”. The assortment included knee pads, elbow pads, shooting glasses with lenses of different colors, headphones and gloves.
The appearance of the Special Forces fighters betrayed the Special Forces fighters in them. In the process of gathering groups, for tightening and fitting equipment, there was a cute joke about the inadmissibility of peering into the mirror. Say, it’s not a good idea to see yourself in the mirror: you can get scared yourself, scare viewers, colleagues, judges and even disrupt the competition. Before reaching the baselines, the second wave of jokes swept. Shamelessly laughed at the most frighteningly-stylish-looking fighters, they say, it is already possible to record in airsoft players, they must accept without special quibbles!
Clean up Watch out. Report.
But the jokes were jokes, and the upcoming exercises, during which they were to demonstrate their skills, were rather difficult. And very different. For example, a group of special forces had to clean up and inspect a one-story residential building. Entry on command, with pistols in hand and with machine guns, ready to fire. According to the rules of the competition, a lot of equipment and ammunition had to be loaded on each of the shooters: a bullet-proof vest of at least 4 protection class, a protective helmet, an assault backpack, an unloading system, four equipped magazines for a pistol and an automatic machine, goggles and gloves. The arrows were not familiarized in advance with the location of the rooms, furniture and targets. The only thing they were aware of was a hostage in the house. He, in combination, and the informant of the group. Accidental defeat of the hostage is unacceptable and equals to the failure of the exercise by the whole group. In addition to the goals in the rooms, there were others - outside the building. They had to hit with a machine gun. One of these goals was the layout of the car quickly moving away on the rails.
Another exercise, performed in the same way by the whole group, was planned as an ambush in the way of the convoy. According to information from the informant, at the appointed time on the highway will proceed two cars and a minibus with terrorists. In one of the cars, presumably blue, is a briefcase with documents. They had to be captured. And the minibus and the second passenger car must be destroyed with accurate gunfire. The exercise began in a uniform way: the group went to the position, inspected the area for a few dozen seconds, the commander gave instructions to his fighters. Then the rocket launcher fired a mass-dimensional simulator of a reactive grenade into the red “six”, and the whole group began firing aimed at the remaining vehicles and the targets appearing around them.
After shelling all the visible targets, the group was divided in half, and the two fighters that made up the inspection team, jogged toward the blue car and the minibus. But it was not so easy to capture the desired portfolio: the organizers of the competition provided for some element of surprise here too. The tablet was out of the car, and at the time it was found by the inspection team in the field, additional targets suddenly appeared, imitating the survivors of the shelling and fleeing to the forest of terrorists. For the defeat of such goals could earn a lot of bonus points. It should be noted that many of the grenade launchers hit the target precisely, having made convincing holes in the sides and doors of the target vehicle.
"Grandmother" under fire
Mini-training grounds, where they practiced exclusively with pistols, were moved to a separate zone. The shooting positions rolled up from three sides were completely forced by targets and all kinds of restraints. In one place, you want - you don't want, but you have to shoot only with your left hand, in the other you have to pull the cable with one hand, only then the target rises, in the third the platform for firing is suspended on short chains and swinging, and in the fourth the only place suitable for shooting is blocked unaffected "grandmother" targets. Cardboard terrorists with pistols in their hands hide behind such inviolable "grandmothers" - scissors. This is where simultaneously the vigilance of the eye, the reaction of the brain, the hardness of the hand and the reliability of military weapons were required.
Since we are talking about pistols, I would like to remember, not with the kindest word, the Yarygin pistol adopted by the Russian Armed Forces in 2003 under the name "9-mm Yarygin pistol" (PJ). For several years, these pistols have been supplied to special units of non-army power structures. Reviews of the pistol at the competitions sounded different, they, apparently, a lot of subjective, but the practice of using the TOR in the course of the exercises showed: delays during the shooting of the TL occur frequently. The fighter performing the exercise could not eliminate one of such delays. The gun jammed tightly and had to resort to using an instructor-gunsmith. According to the rules of the competition, any shooter had two minutes to eliminate a sudden delay. Yes, at competitions such minutes will turn into just penalty points, but what can happen during this time in a real situation of fast-moving combat?
Looking at this short-handed fiasco, I turned to the instructors and the fighters for clarification. Summing up what he heard: the pistol is, in general, good, powerful and accurate, but the quality of its workmanship and the wonders that arise when firing domestic cartridges (a lot of non-print has been said here) make us think about returning to outdated and outgoing models: PM, PMM and APS. The latter, although produced until the end of the 50s of the last century, but received deserved recognition from modern shooters. Of course, all the shooting at the competition was conducted by domestic live ammunition, the only exceptions were exercises where a one-time grenade launcher was used - there the target was hit with inert ammunition that did not contain an explosive.
In my inexperienced view, the competitions were organized skillfully and interesting. The servicemen ensured the uninterrupted operation of the test site at all stages of the competition. Due to the nature of the event, I could not shoot everything, but there were no complaints here, of course. The specifics of the service and the work of participants in the event is such that the names and recognizable persons in the report can not be given. As for the skills and skills - special forces, I think, did not disappoint, and in some places even surprised. And a separate personal thanks for the numerous explanations and science refereeing team.
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