The cadets of second and third year courses from the faculty of preparation of specialists of military intelligence and Special Forces of the Military Academy (based in Odesa) took part in practical shooting competitions. Eight teams that were represented by servicemen from the Special Forces units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine compete for the right to be called the best in team classification and individual rating.

“Practical shooting” is a new type of exercise that was introduced into the programme of training the Special Forces units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine several years ago. Such competitions are constantly conducted among the Special Forces units of the leading countries of the world. Exercises allow to develop tactical level of training and to increase combat capability of units in critical conditions of using.

Competitions were taken place on firing range of the educational institution and included exercises on practical shooting from AK-74 submachine gun equipped with sight mechanism. Participants fired on foot with changing of position. Each exercise had a clearly defined application orientation that allows modeling situations taking into account the peculiarities of combat employment, such as: shooting with a constant changing of tactical (target) situation, shooting with obstacles in direction of target, shooting at targets that suddenly appear and disappear, and shooting that simulates being indoors, and so on.

The judges meticulously evaluated the actions of participants of competitions, paying special attention on speed of conducting a task and a number of on target. According to result of the competitions in individual rating, three prize-winning places were secured by the cadets of the Odesa educational institution. The cadets of the Odesa Military Academy took part in competitions of such format for the first time. In addition, there are cadets, who were taking part in combat actions in the east of Ukraine, in the team from the Military Academy. Therefore, combat experience, gained there by them, certainly helped to win.

Oleksandr Kindsfater