Straight outta Japan. Simulated weapons training for professionals:
The company is creatively called Tactical Rubber Guns.
Japan; the home of Airsoft interpretive dance, and more Costa fanboys per sq mi than any other place on earth.
I get that there’s a time and a place for training guns, but doesn’t the JP military and police have real guns they can use for most of the training? Holding a rubber gun and going “PEW PEW PEW” in your head is hardly the same as the real thing. I know hand to hand combat type training rubber guns are often used to prevent injuries. Most importantly, sim-storming a beach Japanese SEAL style with your rubber guns is NOT going to impress the ladies.
From the site:
Development plans : M16A3 / M4A1 / G36 / SA80A2 / FAMAS / AUG F88 / HK MP5 / HK 416D / HK MP7A1 / FNH SCAR-L / SIGP226 / Beretta 92F / M9A1 / HK USP / P30 / MINIMI / M240 GPMC.
Why does Japan have no love for any Glock? Import / export issues? Before someone says “BUT MIKE, G36”, I’m pretty sure that they mean the HK G36… as the Glock 36 is probably one the least popular guns Glock makes.
Thoughts? School me on why these rubber guns are a good idea, and how they aren’t one step above JP love pillows.
Gat tip: Carl
P.S. – Still slow guys… Sorry I can’t create fire derp content to make fun of, out of thin air. :<
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Meh, if you have no need to actually shoot at stuff or practice reloads or whatever a rubber ducky might work just as well and saves you the trouble of signing real weapons out of your arms room as well as cleaning them after you’re done. The Japanese aren’t alone, when I was at AIT we had rubber duck M16s we used for our silly little FTX and ruck march. I was amused to see that they were old M16/M16A1 models.
Good for practicing room clearing in the bricks, too.
Not to mention preventing all the wear and tear that happens through training (Dropping the weapon, dragging it through sand, exposing it to contaminants, etc.)
Small arms are a very large financial burden to support, anything that makes that last is probably a good thing.
If find it odd that these guns are one color. The japs like to make everything 16 different colors.
“TRGs solve the maintenance and quality control issues related to using live fire weapons” They also fixed that problem of real guns being just too much damn fun too shoot.
We used rubber duckies a lot in infantry training. They’re good for muscle conditioning because you can do things with them that would get a real rifle beat up unnecessarily.
I would also gather for the training depicted in the photos, it would be useful, at least for the “swimming with a gun” part. You wouldn’t be rusting out functional rifles. Japan doesn’t have the mass production of armaments like we do, so I’m guessing they like to keep their actual guns as pristine as possible. Not like they can ruin 1000 M4s and just call up FN and get replacements in a few weeks.
I recall a guy who was TDY in Japan and shot with the Japanese. ONE round was unaccounted for and EVERYONE police called the area for 8 hours until it was discovered to be a clerical error.
One round.
Before I read the title I got all giddy “Alright! Type 89 article.” Now I’m sad.
Me too. Poor AR-18 lineage rifles. Nobody cares. :(
Thoughts on their planned guns: Why the M16A3 over the much more common A2 or A4? They really need that fully automatic? Also, SCAR L but not H? Shit’s weak
They are rubber. They don’t actually shoot
No kidding. The point being why did they specifically model ot after the A3? It’s externally identical to the A4 except that it’s FA. So why they hell do they need that on a rubber gun?
Essentially for what you see in the picture; amphib. training (especially in saltwater) would presumably be killer on the weapons (properly lubed/maintained or not).
Plus if worse comes to worse and a boat flips and a rifle goes missing, losing a rubber stick to the water is much easier to explain away/”make it disappear” than losing a serialized rifle.
And most importantly, since they are black and still look like convincingly like guns, the the ladies will never know that your hard metal is really a soft rubber.
Losing a rubber rifle to the ocean like you said is not a big deal but a real one then the dive team has to come out and spend many man hours looking for a single rifle that had a bad sling or sling swivel. Losing a real rifle during training puts several people at risk when they have to dive for them.
Rubber guns because real ones are icky, and there’s no testicles left in Japan since around 1945.
Radiation does weird shit.
Exactly! Soldiers must have a certain mindset when training with the real thing that is not present when using the ‘rubber ducky’. We crushed our enemies in WWII and there aren’t the same aggressive men in Japan, Germany and the rest of the EU anymore. I know this first hand from fighting beside NATO pansies. Way too risk averse.
Current Japanese military training actually includes holding a live firearm and going pew pew pew with your voice, really.
If they aren’t going to shoot anyway, why let the soldiers use the real type 89 which already needs electrical taping all over the gun just to prevent itself from falling apart?
Just give them the rubber guns (or airsoft guns which they already use) and save the time because that way the entire platoon doesn’t waste entire afternoon looking for a single gas regulator pin lost in the excersise ground.
Hate to challenge your feelings of superiority there but we did similar things in the US Army infantry.
Totally illegal in Australia as is airsoft.