[Indo Defense 2018] Marathon Targets Introduces Indoor Moving Target Systems
Australian-based Marathon Targets has been quietly changing the scene in the past several years when it comes to making live fire ranges much more realistic and dynamic by using autonomous moving target systems. The systems are starting to see use all around the world, from the Marine Corps in the United States, Australian infantry marksmanship programs, and even are expanding into the Middle East with some of the Gulf countries.
We were able to get in touch with Marathon Targets over their latest products while at Indo Defense 2018. The company is starting to market an indoor variant of their chassis target system, called the “T10”. Although the outdoor variant is their main line, the system is built like a small tank, weighing and taking up too much space for it to be at all practical for an indoor application. Some of the most vicious combat many infantry units and specifically special operations forces are encountering in the 21st Century is taking place in urban city centers as populations are becoming more centralized. So although being able to hit a moving target at 100 meters on an open field is extremely important, the skill set of dealing with a confined space and even working with team members brings another element to that dynamic.
These schematics are from a brochure for the T10 target system illustrating some of the features of the targets. One point to note is that although they appear to work well on a flat surface, it will be interesting to see if the company can somehow accommodate going up or down features such as stairs.
Marathon Targets provided us with this footage of the indoor T10 targets being used in a shoot house. Note that many of the audio effects are coming from the actual targets themselves with a built-in speaker.
Completely unrelated to the T10 are some examples of their standard targets being used in different scenarios. In the first case the targets are incorporated into the annual Australian Skill at Arms competition.
Another example of the targets being extremely useful for training is through training snipers to shoot at “movers”, in this case doing some aerial shooting from a helicopter.
Much Thanks to Marathon Targets for the videos and brochure!
Infantry Marine, based in the Midwest. Specifically interested in small arms history, development, and usage within the MENA region and Central Asia. To that end, I run Silah Report, a website dedicated to analyzing small arms history and news out of MENA and Central Asia.Please feel free to get in touch with me about something I can add to a post, an error I've made, or if you just want to talk guns. I can be reached at miles@tfb.tv
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Shooting a Three-Gun match will give you 90% of the training for probably 2% of the cost.
I love Marathon they are some of the smartest people I have ever met. RedBack One has a license (I believe an exclusive license) to provide complete training courses with the marathon targets involving extensive use of the Marathon robot's speaker system for role play.
You are expected to verbally interact with the various targets which are quietly moving around in the area and determine if force is necessary and justified. Stressful stuff in a safe environment.
And then you shoot them with your real duty/service weapon. The robots can shrug off 5.56 to any part of their anatomy except the lidar slot down near the ground, which you are informed about and told to absolutely avoid aiming at. They are also capable of scoring you for accuracy if you shoot them in the torso, and have a pivot joint so the target pops down on being hit, training you to assess if you should move on to acquire and prosecute another target.