From January to February 3 soldiers of the Lithuanian Armed Forces attended an international small arms instructors course organised by the 7th U.S. Army Joint Multinational Training Command (JMTC) (Grafenwoehr, Germany) which was delivered by experts of small arms - sergeants of the 7th Army Combined Arms Training Centre. Military experts of the Juozas Lukša Training Centre and one member of the Lithuanian Special Operations Forces trained to handle weapons and took part in live-fire drills.
According to the U.S. instructors, that was the first course to include such a big number of non-U.S. troops. According to the organisers, the results demonstrated by the Czech, U.S., Lithuanian and Macedonian trainees exceeded the highest expectations and all the course participants succeeded in passing the final test on the first attempt.
The course focused on building practical skills - the key skills in training weapon handling. During the first week the attendees practised handling 7 weapons used by the U.S. Army - the M9 Pistol, more widely known as the Beretta 92, the M4 carbine (with a shorter barrel than that of the M16), the M249 Minimi light machine gun, the M240B 7.62mm medium machine gun identical by structure to the FN MAG used by the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the M2 Browning heavy machine gun, the Mk 19 automatic grenade machine gun and the Mossberg 500 shotgun.
During the second week the participants took part in a live-fire training using all the weapons mentioned above. Lithuanians have undergone firing qualification test excellently and were granted expert level qualification. In the course of the exercise the U.S. instructors appreciated and credited the Lithuania servicemembers' knowledge and skills and invited them to instruct other participants of the live-fire training.
The U.S. military thanked the attendees for a motivated and suitable for the military performance and invited to join the continuous courses offered at the centre.
Photos by MSG Gintautas Mauricas
