San Diego Marines come to YPG on unique mission

The unique terrain and incomparable availability of space at Yuma Proving Ground has again provided the ideal location for the Marines to complete a vital training mission.

The 3rd LAAD (Low Altitude Air Defense) Battalion of Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Calif., wrapped up a successful five days of training, according to Capt. Christopher Crim, officer-in-charge.

"YPG is an outstanding area to conduct exercises," Crim said. "We require a lot of open air space that is not encroached by commercial air traffic. There is no other place to accommodate a slot for surface-to-air missiles and the wide variety of weapons systems we use."

In addition to 80 Stinger missiles, Marines also took target practice with the M2 50-caliber machine gun and the M240B machine gun, each with 20,000 rounds of ammunition.

Gunners took practice on remote control aerial targets. During the daylight shoot, out of 38 targets launched there were 25 kills, plus 8 technical kills. Fourteen of those targets were shot down with small arms fire.

A technical kill is when weapons analysts declare that the target would have been hit if it were a life-size aircraft.

Since previous exercises, the target sensors have been outfitted to detect whether rounds fired came within a five-meter sphere, Crim said.

The purpose of the exercises was to identify deficiencies which need to be worked on. Yet Crim was very pleased with the way the Marines have grown as a team.

"The heat was my biggest concern and we've overcome the challenges of a hot, windy, dusty environment that helped us build unit cohesion," Crim said.

He also said that the 3rd LAAD had accomplished every training objective it set out to achieve and that was what the nation expects of them, "to come out here, work hard and prepare for the next mission."

Cpl. Matthew Bierman is a 3rd LAAD gunner who was practicing small arms fire in the daylight shoot.

Bierman said the exercises put him in the proper mindset.

"We go into the worst parts of the world," Bierman said. "Our training environments are equivalent or worse than where we go. We learn to adapt to various climates to make us more proficient."

Opening his flak jacket, Bierman extracted a SAPI (small arms protective insert) plate that can stop a 7.62-millimeter round. Flak jackets, fully loaded, weigh up to 60 pounds and the weight and heat is "what you got to get used to but we've had phenomenally successful training," he stressed.

During the evening shoot, stinger missiles lit up the YPG hills with the brilliance of 4th of July fireworks.

The Stinger, in production since 1987, has an impact force of up to Mach 2 (which is supersonic) and has navigation guidance that enables it to engage targets at any aspect. The 60-inch long missile, about 30 pounds, is fired from the shoulder of a Marine working in a two-man team. The gunner fixes on the target with an infrared tracker head and fires when he gets the signal from his team leader, said Lt. Jesse Stice.

"It has a high percentage of kill rates," Stice said.

Rick Broussard is the CEO of Advanced Composite Manufacturing, the company that manufactured and flew the unmanned aerial targets (UAVs). They were designed to be scale models of Russian Mig 23 jet fighters and operate on a standard radio frequency of 72 megahertz, he said.

The UAVs gave the Marines an excellent opportunity to fire at a simulated aircraft that is going to be an increasingly predominant threat of the future, he noted.

"It builds confidence in the Marines because they get a feel for firing a live weapon at a live target and it behooves us to learn how to defend against that," Broussard said. "We are very proud of these exercises and happy to support our fighting men and women."

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William Roller can be reached at wroller@yuma sun.com or 539-6858.