Jim,
You nailed it with your caveat to the guest article “Airsoft for Survival Training Adventure”.
I work at a military college with ROTC cadets, and unfortunately have to spend a lot of time “unteaching” the deadly habits they developed with paintball and Airsoft. I’ve seen the same in the military, especially when conducting urban training- people grossly under-estimate the penetrating power of modern small arms. Examples are soldiers attempting to engage a tiny exposed portion of a target, when the rest of the enemy soldier was concealed behind an interior house wall, or a storage shed, or a similar worthless barrier [that could easily be penetrated by rifle fire.] A lot of us with service overseas can attest to even cinder block walls failing to protect folks who had chosen “cover” poorly.
It can be good training, but it must be balanced with a mix of more realistic tactical experiences or else folks risk developing deadly habits in terms of their use of cover and concealment. – Todd in Virginia