The trial shooters are NSman volunteers from the other forum,
militarynuts.com. We've organised a few excursions amongst
ourselves already. Several others couldn't make it for the shootout
as they had to work on Sat and one was Attend B (Home). 
May 9, 2005
Officer cadets take aim with paintball guns
SAF trainees use M16 assault rifle lookalikes in training, as a
result of suggestion by NSman, and all who use them say guns inject
greater realism
By David Boey
Defence Correspondent
TRAINEES at the SAF's Officer Cadet School (OCS) these days should
be prepared to get messy in the line of duty.
Since January, the school has been using paintball guns to train
future Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) officers to dodge enemy gunfire
on the urban battlefield.
Last December, the school received 100 of these rifles as part of a
training experiment suggested to the Defence Ministry by a national
serviceman.
The rifles look and feel just like M16 assault rifles that were
once the standard SAF infantry rifle. The China-made replicas even
faithfully reproduce all the features found on real M16s.
The pea-size paintballs may be small and leave the barrel at a mere
100m per second - eight times slower than a real bullet - but they
still pack a wallop.
And make a mess.
Each paintball is a gelatin sphere containing orange, yellow or
green liquid dye. When the guns are set to full automatic, they can
spit out three balls per second.
And just like real weapons, soldiers have to change the rifle's
magazine once 20 'bullets' have been fired.
In an interview on Saturday at the Safti Military Institute, OCS
commander Colonel Ong Yu Lin said that if the trials are
successful, paintball training could complement existing SAF
exercises.
Current SAF exercises have blank ammunition and a small laser
emitter attached to soldiers' weapons to simulate gunfire.
Small disc-like sensors attached to their helmets and uniforms
register when they have been 'shot'.
But soldiers 'hit' by the laser do not experience the impact and
stinging pain that accompanies a paintball strike.
Col Ong said paintball guns add a new dimension to combat
training.
Not only do soldiers get splattered with paint if they are hit, but
they are also forced to apply their battle drills properly or risk
the painful prospect of being peppered with paintballs - each of
which leaves a bruise the size of a 20-cent coin.
He credited Mindef's Innovation Office, which helps fund ideas
suggested by SAF servicemen, for helping to introduce the
scheme.
The suggestion came from Lieutenant (NS) Shawn Fernando.
Now an engineer at Singapore Technologies Aerospace, he raised the
idea with his superiors during his full-time national service when
he was an OCS cadet.
The Mindef committee was bowled over by the suggestion and approved
funding for 100 rifles, paintball ammunition and spares.
Officer Cadet Chen Jianping, from Foxtrot Wing OCS, said:
'Paintballs simulate gunfire much better than blanks because the
projectiles coming your way force you to take cover.'
His fellow cadet Dennis Chia added that the pain of being hit helps
drive home the battle skills they learn in the classroom.
He said: 'It reminds you of what to do and what not to do in
battle.'
To demonstrate the benefits of paintball training, OCS arranged a
shootout on Saturday between cadets from Foxtrot Wing and five
operationally ready NSmen - including this reporter - who had not
tried paintball before.
The NSmen who tested the new rifles for the first time all agreed
paintball would inject greater realism into training.
Corporal (NS) Yip Chee Keen, an NSman from an armour battalion,
said: 'It's an excellent training tool. Your mindset totally
changes. When training with blanks, soldiers tend to just go
through the motions.'
Corporal (NS) Sean Chua, who was hit several times during the
shootout, added: 'When using blanks for training, we tended to walk
here and there. The situation totally changes in a paintball
shootout. You run instead of walk. You actually look for cover to
protect you from incoming projectiles.'
- ENDS -
