McGREGOR RANGE, N.M. -- Several noncommissioned officers from Division West's 5th Armored Brigade and Soldiers from three deploying Army National Guard units recently trained here on a non-lethal weapons system used for riot control operations.
Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 362nd Armored Regiment, "Task Force Stallion," 5th Armored Brigade, along with deploying Soldiers from the 878th Engineer Battalion from Georgia, the 149th Vertical Engineer Company from Kentucky, and the 833rd Engineer Company from Iowa, learned to operate the FN 303 Less Lethal Launcher, which uses compressed air to fire either paint-marker ammunition to identify instigators in a crowd or pepper spray-type ammunition to achieve an irritant effect.
The 5th Armored Brigade frequently conducts non-lethal weapons training for units the brigade is training for deployments.
"It's beneficial for the unit to train on the equipment here, so they are better prepared to use it in theater," said Staff Sgt. Dustin Bell, a Task Force Stallion trainer/mentor.
The Soldiers learned to load, unload, clear and troubleshoot the launcher, as well as the correct places to aim on a person's body. They practiced controlling the firing of the system and experienced what to expect from the ammunition. They marked both far and near targets, as well as aiming for non-lethal zones on silhouette targets.
"The Soldiers quickly grasped where and how to apply the FN 303 munitions in order to achieve maximum effectiveness against a variety of targets," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Crawford, a Task Force Stallion trainer/mentor.
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