How's this for pretty darned pathetic?

From the Globe&Mail

Hard-pressed army forced to train with paintball guns

Ottawa — Canadian soldiers testing their fighting skills in a rare urban exercise were forced to rent commercial paintball weapons because they couldn't get proper army gear, a newly disclosed document shows.

The unusual paintball battle was fought in the Halifax area last February, as the army practised helicopter evacuations in a hostile urban setting.

[...]But the faux evacuation was marred when soldiers were unable to use their army-issue practice ammunition, which fits into their rifles but fires only low-speed powder balls, leaving a harmless mark on the target.

Known under the trade name Simunition, the 5.56-calibre soft bullets are manufactured by SNC Technologies Inc.

Soldiers need to wear special protective gear when using Simunition, including helmets with face protectors, but a shortage of supplies meant there was none available for Exercise Sky Trooper.

So troops were forced to lay down their C-7 rifles, and pick up commercial paintball guns, rented locally. They also rented commercial paintball helmets, with face masks and neck protectors.

“The paintball did add limited realism to room clearing, (but) Simunition is clearly superior and will hopefully be available for future exercises,” says the report, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

The army's limited supplies of Simunition protective gear had been reserved for higher-priority training operations in other parts of the country, the document says.

A spokesman for the army says the appropriate protective gear is on order for the Atlantic headquarters in Halifax, but still has not arrived ...