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Qualifying scores with combat optics to count

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Starting Wednesday, Marines heading to the range for their annual rifle qualification will have to pack extra gear.

Marines shooting Table 1 and Table 2 will qualify only if they shoot with the Rifle Combat Optic, provided their commands have fielded the aiming device. All aggregate scores, whether shot with the optic or iron sights, will count, and these will be entered into the Marine Corps Total Force System database.

This latest change to the Marine Corps Combat Marksmanship Program — announced Sept. 22 in Marine administrative message 529/08 — takes effect Oct. 1.

Shooters will have to use the Rifle Combat Optic and associated modular attachments, including laser aiming device — AN/PEQ-2A, AN/PEQ-15 or AN/PEQ-16 — and vertical foregrip, along with the rifle sling their units issued them.

“The intent is to allow Marines to train and qualify with the primary sighting system and sling system to gain more confidence with the equipment they will be deploying with,” officials said in the MarAdmin. Marines assigned to units that have not fielded the optics will have to shoot using traditional iron sights, according to Chief Warrant Officer 4 Vincent Pope, marksmanship doctrine and programs manager at Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico, Va.

Rifle optics quickly became popular devices among many Marines who used the Advanced Combat Optic Gunsight during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Corps intends to field 104,000 optics, the TA-31 Rifle Combat Optic.

In recent months, the Corps allowed Marines the option of using optics on the range, but those Table 1 and Table 2 scores did not officially count for their annual requalification, meaning shooters had to get an exemption.

“We had a lot of Marines saying, ‘Shoot, I want a score,’ ” Pope said.

Preliminary data collected at Officer Candidates Course found about a 5-point advantage with the scope, enough of a difference to affect a Marine’s cutting score and help him qualify as expert or sharpshooter.

Officials acknowledged a “perceived scoring advantage” but said the current data thus far are very “limited in scope.”

“Though data in the near future may show a definitive advantage for those shooters using the RCO, at this time there will be no conversion chart or point penalty assessed to shooters using the RCO,” the MarAdmin states.

Range officers will collect information and forward it to Quantico so officials can track how shooters perform using the optics.

The Corps is fielding two types of RCOs — AN/PVQ-31A for the M16A4 and AN/PVQ-31B for the M4 carbine.

“They look identical,” Pope noted, but “they are specifically calibrated for that particular rifle.”