Gurkhas' shooting skills inspire new marksmanship training for Army recruits

Some of the British Army's newest recruits are to receive shooting training inspired by the way Gurkha soldiers are taught so they hit their targets with greater accuracy.

Instructors at the Army's training base in Pirbright, Surrey, have spent time practising with their Gurkha colleagues after seeing the amazing results they were having with their own recruits arriving from Nepal.

The training team received lessons in controlling their heart rate, when and how best to squeeze the trigger and adopting different firing positions with their rifles and pistols.

• TV series featuring Royal Navy photographer's work on Kabul evacuation nominated for Bafta
• All ghillied up: How to spot a trainee British Army sniper before they spot you
• Commandos' new £10m snowmobiles will enhance Arctic lethality for elite force

Marksmanship plays a key part in basic training - and the accuracy of the Gurkhas inspired the new shooting teams to level up their performance.

"Half the Gurkha training team were all in the best 100 shots," Lieutenant Colonel Ben Salt, the OC of 2nd Infantry Training Battalion, told Forces News.

"I was watching how the Gurkhas were delivering their shooting development and marksmanship.

"I noticed that not only do they win a lot of the shooting competitors, at that basic level they were teaching them in a slightly different way, how they were squeezing the trigger, and some of the positions that they were taking to create a stable base."

The specially designed shooting competitions are supposed to challenge instructors, who can then pass down the gold standard techniques to recruits.

Lt Col Salt emphasised the importance of the training.

He said: "The behaviours that they learn when they first start will feed through the rest of their career. Results have been quite revolutionary."

As the Army looks for more recruits, these marksmanship lessons are bridging one of the largest gaps between the civilian and the soldier.