Report: Army Soldiers to Get Extended Weapons Training

Army soldiers will have longer infantry school training to become more weapons-proficient and combat-ready, Stars and Stripes reported.

The service will add two more months to infantry school — the biggest change in nearly a half-century – to develop a more lethal force, the military news outlet reported.

In July, the Army will extend unit training from 14 to 22 weeks in a pilot program; the expanded course will be introduced throughout the infantry school in the summer or fall of 2019, according to Stars and Stripes.

In a statement, Col. Townley Hedrick, the commandant of the Army Infantry School, told the outlet soldiers will train more with their M4 rifle, the M240 machine gun and the M249 squad automatic weapon.

"So, across all the infantry weapons, they will get more bullets," he said. "And they will also shoot more at night, rather than just doing a day familiarization fire."

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