Officers Worry as Saudis Still Curb Live-Fire Training : Military: Few U.S. soldiers get to practice with real ammunition under desert conditions. Artillery needs are stressed.

U.S. military commanders, struggling to keep a sharp fighting edge on their troops in a difficult environment, are increasingly concerned about Saudi-imposed rules that prevent most American soldiers from training with live ammunition--even in remote desert areas.

As a result of the restrictions, U.S. officials say, many American units deployed in the Persian Gulf crisis are able to prepare for possible combat less thoroughly than they could back at their bases in the United States.

Seven weeks after their deployment began, the bulk of American forces still have had no opportunity to test-fire their weapons, even though they face the imminent possibility of combat under unfamiliar and challenging circumstances.

“We’re definitely hoping for more, and we’re pursuing it,” one ranking U.S. source said Friday, “but we’re getting nowhere fast.”

Live-fire practice is especially important for the military’s heavy artillery batteries and main battle tanks. Both would be pivotal in any clash with Iraq’s massive forces, and they would need to calibrate their weapons and make other adjustments to adapt to the challenges of desert warfare.

The restrictions have become a point of contention between U.S. and Saudi officials and a source of rising concern for field commanders, who regard training with live ammunition as an important part of combat readiness.

In what military officials described as the most frustrating example to date, a scheduled exercise involving the 82nd Airborne Division was canceled at the last minute Friday after Saudi officials said the Americans had not obtained proper clearance.

The American officials conceded that the Saudi limitations are not the only barrier to the heavy use of live-fire exercises that combat leaders would like. Supplies of U.S. ammunition remain limited, and most of it is being reserved for use in case of war. But officials said that, while available supplies of ammunition would not permit extensive live-fire practice, the Saudi barriers prevent even the minimal level of such training they consider essential. They note that the Saudi government has set aside only a single live-fire range for the use of more than 100,000 American troops.

So limited are the opportunities for troops to test their weapons that many U.S. forces “won’t know how things work until the shooting starts,” one Army commander said.

Saudi officials declined to discuss the reason for the restrictions, but U.S. sources said one concern has been that the use of live ammunition, and the unexploded shells that result from such exercises, could endanger nomadic desert herdsmen.

Also, the U.S. officials asserted, the restraints are part of a continuing Saudi effort to ensure that the American forces remain as low-profile as possible to avoid feeding Arab concerns about the potential despoliation of Muslim holy sites.

The curbs mean that entire front-line Army divisions and most of a Marine expeditionary force have yet to train with live ammunition, while the Air Force has not fired at all. Only Marine M-60 tanks and artillery and about half of the 82nd Airborne have had a turn on the firing range.

The limited training, described in interviews with a wide range of military officials, contrasts sharply with widely distributed television footage of American troops and weapons unleashing a barrage of fire against mock enemy targets.

The first live-fire exercises began Sept. 12 after extensive negotiations between U.S. and Saudi officials. Because of frequent photo opportunities, the training exercises sent an important symbolic message. But commanders said its military effect has been more limited.

Concern about lack of realistic training is a common complaint in the military, particularly in foreign countries, where host governments tend to impose more severe restrictions than field commanders would like. U.S. forces based in Germany may go more than six months between live-fire exercises, one Army official noted.

“We’ll do what we always do,” the official said. “We’ll train around it.”

But commanders said they regard the problem as far more serious in Saudi Arabia, where conflict appears more likely than it has in other theaters and where the harshness of the environment may cause weapons to malfunction in unexpected ways.

The limited size of the firing range and its location a considerable distance from the front have contributed to an uneven mix of units permitted to use it.

Although the Marine tanks were able to calibrate their heavy weapons after long storage aboard Navy ships, the similarly important forward-based M-1 tanks from the Army’s 24th Mechanized Division have had no such opportunity.

At the same time, Marine ground troops stationed close to the front have been provided no live-fire practice whatsoever while the 82nd Airborne, whose forces have pulled back to rear positions, has been using the range for nearly two weeks.