25mm Range Practice

25mm Range Practice - Exercise Brave Ram
Cpl Joshua Potter, 1 Troop, Recce Squadron, Task Force 3-09

Recce Squadron conducted a 25mm range this week that will probably be the last opportunity for us to shoot before deploying to Afghanistan on TF 3-09. Having completed Exercises Desert Ram and Maple Guardian in Alberta, this time we enjoyed hosting members of several Platoons from D Coy, 1 PPCLI in our backyard. Nothing shakes the cobwebs off summer leave like the "thump, thump, thump" of the Coyote's 25mm Bushmaster cannon. Before we hit the range on 10 and 11 August, we ran through a serial of CGT refresher training with the assistance of D Squadron, who has just returned from Afghanistan. Their mentoring and experience delivered a realistic shoot that was "almost" like the real thing. With our appetites worked up, we hit the Juliette tower range early Monday morning. 1 Troop was tasked to run the range and a target/work party was sent out early in the morning. The Liaison Officer, Lt Tim Abbott, had procured 15 Static Vehicle Targets (SVTs) and 12 smaller Static Infantry Targets (SITs) which we dug in under the guidance of Lockheed & Martin employees who provided these state of the art target systems. 2 Combat Engineer Regiment (2 CER) also provided six concrete walls and a dozer to dig them in, which probably took a few dollars out of the pockets of the makers of Rub A535.

A crew from 3 Tp pulverizes targets during a static shoot

TO B SQUARDON

Capt Chris Hillier and WO John Barrett, the Troop Leader and Troop WO for 1 Troop made sure that the range was set up, that the sentries were briefed and everyone knew what they had to do. After the range safety brief and a battle bore sighting, we held a penetration demo on an old car at 600m. 3 Troop engaged the vehicle and riddled it with holes. Everyone walked down to observe the effects of the weapons and we were reminded that we were firing training ammunition. Score one for the 25mm - the damage was pretty amazing! The practice on the first day included static day and night shoots that saw crew commanders and the gunners fire over 120 rounds per turret, along with several boxes of 7.62mm each on both the coaxial and pintle mounted machine guns. We stayed out until 2200 that night so we could fire under a blanket of darkness. The concrete walls, cars and VDS targets were hit again and again as the gunners fine tuned their skills. It was a long and very full day.

Tuesday morning had a later start which was probably good - everyone was pretty tired from all the fun in the sun the day prior. We marched the 6km to the range in our Full Fighting Order (FFO). The march wasn't too bad but the heat was tough. When we arrived at Juliette Tower, MCpl Jay Dunnett and the guard had water and juice prepared which was a sight forsore eyes. Tuesday's shoot was a stabilization run with three vehicles moving at a time. Crews shot about 45 rounds of 25mm and a box of 7.62mm per battle run. The "GIBs" went along for the ride and then engaged targets with their C8 Assault Carbines while the vehicles returned to the firing line. It was great for the entire crew to participate in the shoot.

Overall, the 25mm range was a huge success! Maj Popov's order of "no ammo will be turned in" was taken to heart. All rounds were expended and other than the occasional jammed cannon, a few sunburns and some black bears that wandered into our area, it went off without a hitch! Recce Squadron and members of D Company, 1 PPCLI moved into small arms training for the remainder of the week, however, that's another story!

Sgt Skinner and MCpl Dunnett refresh their 25mm gunnery in the CGT.

A Coyote crew starts their stab run with a bang.

A car at 500m never stood a chance against the 25mm cannon!