Firing noise exceeds 160 decibels – enough to cause some hearing damage for troops firing the weapon regularly. While this is rarely the most pressing concern in battle, hearing protection is standard in training, and electronic ear protectors that damp down damaging peak sounds to safe levels while allowing quieter sounds such as normal speech are now starting to be used even on operations.
The weapon’s bullpup design puts the point of balance above the pistol grip, allowing it to be held and even aimed one-handed, though it cannot be fired like that with any real accuracy. Empty cartridge cases are ejected from the right side of the weapon; aside from making things difficult for left-handed users, this also prevents right handed users shooting from their ‘off’ shoulder. This had been routinely taught with the SLR, so that soldiers firing around the left side of cover exposed as little of themselves as possible.
Once the last round is fired, the top edge of the magazine follower catches the bolt carrier and prevents it going forward, warning the user that he needs to reload. Once a new magazine has been inserted, the hold-open catch is released, allowing the bolt to go forward and pick up the first round.
Being able to use his weapon is a soldier’s most important skill, and the British Army puts considerable effort into making training as realistic as possible. As Colonel Tim Collins put it:
If we were to avoid casualties in combat I had to ensure where possible that each man regarded his weapon system as an extension of his body and could react at an instant when a threat arose. This involved not only training the men to shoot straight, but to do so at night, under pressure and when exhausted and even frightened. (Collins 2005: 100)
Troops start out learning to shoot against static targets on the range, but rapidly add contact and skirmish drills, firing at targets on the move. Royal Marine Jake Olafsen remembers
learning about how to shoot properly, trajectories, theories of flight, and all sorts of good stuff… We stripped and reassembled our rifles over and over again, and we were getting faster and faster each time. As we would be putting our rifles together the instructor would wander around asking questions about the effective range of the weapon, or what the name of some small part was. If you didn’t answer fast enough or simply didn’t know, there was always some sort of punishment waiting for you. (Olafsen 2011: 22–23)
Every recruit had to pass the Annual Personal Weapon Test (APWT) in order to complete their basic training. As the name suggests, the test had to be retaken each year, usually after completing a run in order to simulate the adrenalin and exertion of combat. The Military Annual Training Test (MATT) replaced the APWT from 2006, but the content did not differ greatly. The APWT or MATT was a minimum standard for all soldiers, and training continued well beyond that point, especially for infantrymen. The training cycle that preceded any operational deployment invariably featured marksmanship refreshers, often customized to reflect the mission. For instance, troops deploying to Northern Ireland during ‘the Troubles’ received a refresher in urban patrolling at ‘Tin City’ at Sennelager in Germany, which featured mannequins that could interact with the soldiers verbally as well as pop-up targets, or at the Lydd and Hyde Close Quarter Battle (Urban) ranges in Britain.
A simulated ‘West European village’ was built at Copehill Down in Wiltshire in 1990 for urban warfare training. It was modified (somewhat unconvincingly) into an Afghan village by sticking a crescent on top of the church, before purpose-built training environments became available. In 2009, Afghan villages were created at the Stanford Training Area (STANTA) in Norfolk and the British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) training area at Suffield in Alberta, Canada. Both were complete with Afghan-style compounds and even marketplaces. They were staffed by Afghan civilians the troops could interact with during a variety of scenarios, while former Gurkhas played the role of insurgents. Mock-up compounds were also built at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan for troops to practise clearing drills.
Experience in Afghanistan led to changes in marksmanship training, with greater emphasis being placed on firing from standing and kneeling positions to reflect operational reality. More time was spent on close-quarter drills and soldiers were trained to transition to their back-up weapon rather than trying to clear a serious stoppage, after pistols became standard issue for all infantry in theatre. A sub-calibre training kit produced by Heckler & Koch allowed the use of low-powered .22in rimfire ammunition, for training on indoor ranges. Tactical training was enhanced by use of blanks and by the Small Arms Weapon Engagement System (SAWES) and its replacement, the Tactical Engagement Simulation (TES). Both of these involved the use of low-powered lasers mounted on weapons, which scored ‘hits’ on sensors on opponents’ helmets and harnesses. Any hit deactivated the ‘victim’s’ weapons and set off alarms on their harness, which only stopped when he lay on his back.
Trainers saw immediate improvements when these systems were introduced in the mid-1980s – aside from removing argument about whether a man was out of action or not, soldiers behaved more realistically, used cover better, and often found they had to deal with the ‘fog of war’ when section and platoon commanders became casualties. The pay-off from this training proved critical in real combat. Paratrooper Sergeant Major Jimmy Fitzwilliam described combat in Sierra Leone:
Once the rounds started going down, your training does kick in. You remember what you have practised and trained for all those years and you just do it. It’s like driving a car; you don’t think about what your foot’s doing on the pedal or what your hands are doing on the gear stick, and how you coordinate the two actions, you just do it automatically. (Quoted in Danziger 2010: 156)
The original 4.85mm prototypes used straight 20-round (IW) and 30-round (LSW) steel magazines, but with the change to the NATO-standard 5.56mm calibre, the weapon was modified to accept the STANAG 30-round magazines used by the M16. These had a rather odd curved shape, as a compromise between the curve optimized for cartridge feed and the straight top section required to fit into the M16’s deep magazine well. Adopting them also meant changing the way the magazine locked in place. Plastic magazines were trialled for the XL70 series, but proved insufficiently rigid without strengthening ridges, which then made them too bulky to fit into the standard magazine well.
In fact, the lightweight aluminium US magazines initially issued proved to be problematic, as they did not always feed reliably in the British weapons. They were replaced by steel magazines produced at Radway Green in Cheshire, but these were in turn replaced as part of the A2 upgrade by more durable (and expensive) steel Heckler & Koch magazines. These had a deeper follower platform, which did not cant while feeding and thus presented rounds to the bolt more consistently, thus improving reliability. A specialized version of the Heckler & Koch magazine was produced specifically for blank ammunition used during exercises. This was marked with high-visibility yellow striping, and fitted with a plate which shortened the internal space. This reduced space would hold the short crimped-case blank rounds, but prevented full-length bulleted rounds being loaded accidentally.