POTD: Royal Thai Army in Operation Cobra Gold

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    Today’s Photo comes courtesy of the U.S. Army Pacific Public Affairs Office and takes us to Camp Barommatrailokkanat in Thailand.

    We look at a Royal Thai Army soldier as he fires his weapon during basic rifle marksmanship earlier in 2019. Soldiers from both the U.S. and Thailand learned each other’s techniques of firing weapons to gain a shared understanding of how their armies operate.
    This was part of Cobra Gold, an exercise “designed to increase cooperation, interoperability and collaboration among partner nations in order to achieve effective solutions to common challenges.”

    ‘Cobra Gold’ is the largest US-led military exercises in Asia involving gruelling drills in the Thai jungle, war games, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise. This year’s 11-day exercise is the 38th edition which sees 4 500 U.S. personnel participate directly in the exercise.

    According to Wikipedia, the IWI Tavor TAR-21 is the standard Thai infantry rifle. It replaced the M16A1, and Thailand ordered over 106,000 Tavors.

    A Royal Thai Army soldier fires an M240 Machine Gun at an enemy target during a platoon live-fire exercise Feb. 14, 2019, at Ban Dan Lan Hoi, Thailand. Both the U.S. Army and Royal Thai Army soldiers went through the live fire scenario as part of Cobra Gold.

    They could probably use a red dot as a sight, to improve things.

    The environment looks a bit dusty, but this Thai soldier shows his Ninja skills as he jumps over the Concertina barbed wire.

    A Royal Thai Army soldier peers down the sight of his weapon during a platoon live fire exercise Feb. 14, 2019, at Ban Dan Lan Hoi, Thailand.

    “Stucky”

    A Soldier with 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, peers down the sight of his M249 Machine Gun during a platoon live fire exercise

    Thai soldiers with US weapons.

    Photos by Staff Sgt. Samuel Northrup.

    Cobra Gold – such a great name. I’d take part in any exercise called Cobra Gold regardless.

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