In a significant reversal, the Marine Corps has begun using optics at entry-level training, and could do so on a permanent basis beginning next year.
Every Marine is a trained rifleman ... a la Project Appleseed.
Look, I have no problem with infantrymen training with optical sights; that's what they will deploy with, that's what they will use day to day and that's what they should train with (and I'd also submit they need to shoot many, many more rounds in training).
But as an artilleryman, I can pretty much count the number of rounds I fired during Desert Shield/Storm/Sword - zero. If I think real hard, I can even count the total number of 5.56 rounds I've fired as a Marine - it's under 1500.
As to Marine training: as a Fire Direction Controlman, I had access to the very best computer solutions to the gunnery problem, but I still was required to keep manual back-ups going at all times because computers break, or the generator that powers it stops because someone didn't put fuel in it - and when the infantry downrange needs supporting fire right fucking now, you'd better be able to provide it.
If the average recruit isn't learning to shoot well enough, you need to teach him, before you start giving him all sorts of high-speed/low-drag gear to make him better. Make the rifle range 3 weeks long or 4 weeks long ... but teach the Marine to shoot. Then, if his mission demands, you've taken a competent rifleman and made him better.
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