Abstract: A weapon simulator, particularly for simulating small arms, comprises a laser projector for attachment to the weapon. Firing the weapon initiates the production of a narrow, pulsed, beam by the laser, and this beam is scanned vertically downwardly while its pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is varied as a function of scan angle. The weapon/ammunition type can also be encoded in the laser pulses. The beam is received by a spatially diverse pair of detectors on the target, typically comprising a first detector having an annular entry aperture covering about 6 cm in the vertical direction, and a second detector disposed in the center of the annular entry aperture of the first. The central detector effectively determines the width of the beam, thus permitting the range from the weapon to the target to be computed from the beam width and the difference in the prf detected at the start and finish of the illumination of the first detector.