Posted on 01/13/2011 4:31:59 PM PST by Pan_Yan
January 13, 2011: Afghanistan is buying over a thousand American M24 sniper rifles for its army and police. These will be delivered over the next 40 months. Why not deliver them faster? Because most Afghans are lousy shots. While there are a lot of weapons in Afghanistan, and most families have one, there is not a lot of money for ammunition. Many of the weapons are old (often a century old) rifles and shotguns. Afghanistan is a very poor, if heavily armed, country. While marksmanship is admired, shooting skills have greatly deteriorated in the last three decades. Thus the U.S. is not supplying the Afghans with the more powerful .300 Winchester magnum version of the M24 (the M2010).
The big issue in Afghanistan is how to get Afghans to shoot more accurately. To remedy this problem, NATO trainers have obtained large amounts of rifle ammunition and are having Afghan troops expend it regularly learning to fire accurately. Afghans, and especially the Taliban, consider themselves great warriors. But they are not noted for their accuracy in a firefight. Blame this on new toys. Since the 1980s, the country has been awash with AK-47s and RPG rocket launchers. The Afghans took to the AK-47, and the thrill of emptying a 30 round magazine on full automatic, as a worthy battlefield technique. Actually, it's not bad for a brief, close range firefight, especially if you were fighting other Afghans. But against soldiers who aim and fire single shots, the "spray and pray" approach gets you killed.
NATO troops have built rifle ranges for the Afghan Army, and trained Afghan officers and NCOs in time-tested techniques of becoming an accurate shot, and training other Afghans to do the same. Afghan troops are also being equipped with M-16 rifles.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
“Insh’Allah” is why the Afghans and most Muslims are terrible shots. ‘Insh’Allah’ means (more or less) ‘It is God’s will’.
Long story short, to develop a skill and employ it is to display a lack of faith in Allah. See, if Allah wants to kill who you’re pointing at the bullet will hit them. It’s not up to you.
That said, the reason the Afghans want these rifles is so they can make a bundle selling them to someone else.
Let’s hope they are not used against us by brain damaged mudslime followers.
Instead of giving them VERY expensive M1010’s (with OUR tax money), give them some tweaked Savage hunting rifles with decent scopes. The Savage rifles are said to be sub MOA right out of the box.
I totally agree
EL
What’s the over and under on the number that will be in the Taliban’s hands in 6 months?
From the article:
"These will be delivered over the next 40 months."
What is the over/under that there is still an Afghan government to ship them to in 40 months?
There’ll be a government. Probably one that ain’t too friendly to us.
So you’re saying nothing will change.
heh. Yup.
i agree. my bowning 22-250 is a tack driver.
After one of his tours he said precisely what this story says: Afghans aren't good shots and their equipment didn't help them one bit.
Better than 98%.
Giving an Afghan soldier a $7,000.00 purpose built rifle is pretty close to the textbook definition of insanity.
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