Review of Rifle Marksmanship Training Research

Abstract

The UCLA National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is under contract from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to conduct research on assessment models and tools designed to support Marine Corps rifle marksmanship. In this deliverable, we first review the literature on known-distance rifle marksmanship research in Section I. In Section II we examine USMC combat marksmanship. Because the USMC Combat Marksmanship Program (CMP) (including moving targets) is new, there is no current research that we know of that has specifically examined assessment of CMP elements and we thus identify assessment issues. Section III reviews the use of sensors in the assessment of rifle marksmanship skill, and we provide detailed information on our prior work on developing and validating measures for known-distance rifle marksmanship. Section IV provides an overview of various marksmanship training systems in use by the USMC as of 2006. Based on the available information, we examined each system with respect to capabilities needed to support research on marksmanship. Section V provides a detailed research plan and schedule intended to investigate the assessment issues covered in Sections I to IV.