Training in the EUTM Mali Mission

Following the troop rotation, the soldiers carried on with training the snipers of the Malian armed forces GTIA 7 battlegroup. The six-strong training team currently includes four Portuguese and two Hungarian trainers. The observation post practices are aimed at enabling the training audience to notice even the smallest important details in the area under observation. The training sessions start with spotting objects placed at short distances. As their observation skills improve, the distances get longer, the objects to be spotted are hidden in the undergrowth and the terrain features keep changing all the time. They practice marksmanship in open and rugged terrains and woodlands, and – because some snipers’ duties include law enforcement tasks – in built-up areas as well.

Military map reading and land navigation form another essential part of the training. In most cases, they start this phase by covering the basics, and depending on the time allotted in the training calendar, they usually learn the most necessary topics and skills. The most important part with the most training hours allotted is target practice, where they also have to start the training from the basics. During the first marksmanship training sessions, they execute several target practices firing with zeroed weapons at targets placed at 100 and 200 meters. On these occasions, they improve and sharpen their marksmanship skills and master the proper shooting positions. Once they have acquired the core skills, they enter a second phase in which they are assigned more complex shooting tasks to be executed in different parts of the day. Starting from the third week of the training, the personnel fire their weapons at targets placed at a distance of 300 meters, and with gradually increasing the distance, they reach a maximum of 400 meters by the end of the training.

The trainees include the sniper inductees of the Malian Gendarmerie, so instead of the previously used Russian SVD and Yugoslav M91 scoped rifles, the weaponry of these gendarme snipers consists of Finnish TIKKA T3 sniper rifles fitted with Austrian-made scopes, which can be used to fire precise aimed shots up to a distance of 400 meters. In this case, the range of the weapon depends on the technical specifications of the optics. The next two-week phase of the training is taken up by some main shooting tasks like live firing exercises in built-up (inhabited, urban) areas and night shooting tasks.

Photos by the authors