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[JuntaJoe]

As bad as suicide bombers and remote explosive devices are to casulty counts, it the sniper that really creates fear in an occupation force, regardless of whether snipers are as important to total casulty numbers.

Counter-sniper warfare is an exotic and facinating science. I got to do a bit of it in Beruit. It is brutal work. Many hours motionless and in total silence waiting for that one shot to be fired. And then you must silence your opponent on the first response.

The key concept is that you concede their first shot, succesful or not, to ensure that one of their expert marksmen dies immediately. Sonar, radar, optics, instinct, patience, and skill are all wrapped up in that magic return shot. It is one of the hardest and deadliest of games that mankind plays. Does he make his first shot and escape? Or do you limit his shooting locations and opportunities to force a bad shot and a fatal consequence? Trust me, a man can spend his entire life honing his sniper/counter-sniper skills and end up in a pine box from a 50 cent bullet.

It all makes for great reading and you should snap up any books you get on the topic. Just remember that the reading and the doing are far different things. The life of a sniper is a brutal and mind-numbing one that can end it an eyeblink.


Anyway, I rarely see tech articles on this arcane profession, but I found one today for your perusal:


Military Testing Infrared Gunfire Detector

October 29, 2005 6:15 AM EDT
WASHINGTON - A sniper fires on American troops in Iraq. In the milliseconds before the bullet hits - in fact, before the shot is even heard - a computer screen reveals the gun's model and exact location. That's the kind of intelligence that can save soldiers' lives. The Army is currently testing the technology in combat.

The devices are made by Radiance Technologies, a small Alabama company, and differ in their approach to gunfire detection from systems already deployed in Iraq that rely on acoustics.

Radiance's invention, WeaponWatch, is powered by infrared sensors that detect missiles or gunfire at the speed of light.

"Obviously when the first shot is fired, you can't do anything about it," said George Clark, president of the company founded in 1999. "But what it does do is it allows you to not have a second fired."

WeaponWatch is a major reason that Radiance, which had only three employees six years ago, now has 275. Over that period, it's been one of the 500 fastest-growing small businesses in the United States.

Nobody seems to dispute that WeaponWatch is the fastest such system on the market, but the challenge for company executives was persuading the Pentagon that those few extra nanoseconds provide any practical advantage over the existing sonar versions, which have a wider field of vision.

After all, human reflexes are far more sluggish than either light or sound.

Cambridge, Mass.-based BBN Technologies makes one of the leading acoustic devices. Its system detects enemy gunfire with an array of microphones and is known as Boomerang. Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, it was deployed in Iraq last year.

More than 100 of its units have been built, though the company is unsure how many are being used by soldiers.

Stephen Milligan, BBN's technology director, says a likely advantage of sonar is that it produces fewer false alarms than infrared.

"There are many ways to create an infrared flash," Milligan said. "I would guess it is ultimately possible to spook it."

But Charles Kimzey, who manages the Pentagon's research program that includes weapon detection systems, says that while both acoustic and infrared each have their advantages, early tests indicate Radiance's device is superior.

"The feedback we've gotten has been quite favorable," Kimzey said.

For security reasons, Pentagon officials refuse to disclose which U.S. military units have used WeaponWatch and where.

Walt Smith, a technology director at Radiance who traveled with the system to Iraq during its March 2004 launch, said soldiers like it because of its precision.

"A person who has a rugged tablet personal computer can see an image," Smith said. "Someone on the second floor, third window from the right, shot from that location."

The system was tested on top of a building where there was a high concentration of insurgent gunfire. Within a few days, American troops were able to use WeaponWatch to return fire more rapidly, Smith said, resulting in a noticeable drop in enemy attacks.

And that was the old 400-pound version - clunky, cumbersome and highly susceptible to damage from high temperatures and the sand kicked up by desert winds. The newest version is less than 30 pounds and about the size of a lunch box. It can be stationary or placed on Humvees, tanks, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.

"It has limitations like all technology," Smith said. "There's no perfect, silver bullet. But it's very effective in certain circumstances in an urban environment. In a desert environment it can be extremely effective."

WeaponWatch picks up on the infrared signature of every weapon the moment it is fired, instantly identifying it from a database of thousands of weapons muzzle flashes.

Kimzey said that because the technology has become so mobile and keeps getting smaller, there's virtually no end to the possibilities.

For example, the Marines recently tested a program that links the infrared detector to an automatic weapon. It would allow the combatant wielding that weapon to get a shot off almost immediately after the enemy fired.

Kimzey said such an invention could be problematic because military rules of engagement require that a human being, and not a machine make firing decisions in the field of combat.

The federal government has invested nearly $15 million over five years in developing the infrared technology. Besides the four test models being used in Iraq, another 20 have been ordered.

Kimzey said it's unclear how much the Pentagon will spend on the program when it moves from research to deployment, but he said it's definitely an investment the Defense Department plans to make.

"As the sensor develops its capability and becomes convincing, folks are knowing about it and they're asking for it," Kimzey said.

---

On the Net:
Radiance Technologies: http://www.radiancetech.com
BBN Technologies: http://www.bbn.com

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

[DrJoshuaFalken]

Although video games are a poor substitute for the real thing (which in this case is for the better), it is sort of relavant.

I was playing Sniper Elite, and I had read this before, it really is difficult. Though your sniper counterparts have the aim of your average Imperial Stormtrooper, so you can get all the chances you want without ever reloading.

[JuntaJoe]

There is an excellent semi-fiction on the topic that is still in print.

It's about the Russian snipers during the seige of Stalingrad.

The story is fiction, but based on personal diaries of Russians and Germans during that epic battle.

War of the Rats by David L. Robbins is a wild read.

You really get the feel of the fantastic and hazardous life of a sniper.

[Georgie]

Did you hear about the record sniper kill where one of our men shot a guy in the head through a window 3/4 a mile away? He was using a sight thing, aiming fifteen feet above the target, and calculating in the wind factor. He came from some place like Alabama where he practiced aiming and shooting a lot.

[JuntaJoe]

That's no record.

The record belongs to Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock, aka The White Feather, who modified an M2 50 caliber machinegun with a scope and pedestal mount in the back of a jeep.

The shot was well over a mile and he had to aim in a parabolic arc that was similar to artillery fire in that he shot high into the air and dropped the bullet in on his prey.

The shot was so far that the Vietnamese who were around the target never even heard the gun shoot even though the 50 caliber is a very loud round.

Hathcock killed dozens of high ranking North Vietnamese. His fame grew so far that the North Vietnamese put a million dollar bounty on his head. Given that they probably spent no more than a few hundred dollars per well trained regular army soldier per year in pay, food, ammo, and equipment that they considered his death more important than equiping an entire regiment of troops.

Hathcock outlived his foes and died of ALS only a few years ago.

Ask any American sniper since 1970 and he will tell you that Hathcock was the undisputed master of this deadly craft. He might have been the best sniper of all time in any war in any army.

[Georgie]

Well, 3/4 miles is something to remember.

[JuntaJoe]

Not really. Every Marine is required to test once a year on the rifle range and one of those tests is a man sized sillouette placed 500 meters away. That's five 5 football fields away or 30% of a mile. Go measure the distance yourself sometime to envision the shot. No scope or fancy equipment either. Just an issue M16 with iron sights. They have to hit that target 8 times out of 10 in 60 seconds.

That test isn't just for the infantry types. Cooks, clerks, drivers, whatever. 80% at 500 meters in 60 seconds by everyone using the same tired rifles.

Now you give a Marine a real sniper rifle, scope, and 2 years specialty training and that 1200 meters is quite doable on a good day.

Imo, it takes a shot of over 2000 meters to get me to declare the sniper to be a supreme master of his craft.

Remember that Hathcock's longest confirmed shot was twice what you mentioned in that last anecdote.