How Army Snipers Are Trained | Boot Camp

[Music] these soldiers are training to be u.s army snipers before this seven week training course is done more than half of them will be dropped from training i think when you actually get down here on the ground and you're actually performing the role of a sniper it's a lot different from what a lot of people would instantly think most of the time you're laying somewhere you don't want to lay for a way longer than you thought you would be and sometimes it's fruitless and sometimes it's not [Music] this is the us army sniper course where soldiers from the army and national guard learn essential skills in sniper field craft and marksmanship soldiers leaving here are going to leave a more lethal soldier than they were prior to arriving there are more than 2 000 snipers currently serving in the u.s army their primary mission placing long-range precision fire on key targets but being a sniper goes beyond pulling a trigger insiders spent two days at the u.s army sniper course at fort benning observing different classes at various stages of training including marksmanship range estimation target detection and stalks to be accepted into the sniper course prospective students must meet a range of prerequisites which include passing a psychological evaluation and physical fitness test achieving expert qualification with the m4 carbine and receiving a recommendation letter from their battalion commander attributes to make a good sniper to attend the united states army sniper course would be a disciplined soldier the ability to think on their feet but the ability to grow through updated doctrine although both male and females are eligible for entry only one female student has attended the course graduating in 2021 training is split into two categories field craft and marksmanship all right five minutes now during marksmanship training students get familiarized with three different rifles the m2010 enhanced sniper rifle the m110 sas and the m107 shooting has always been the fun thing to do you know it's what everyone wants to go do they want to go shoot working in pairs students learn to hit targets from 600 to 1100 meters away alternating between the shooter and spotter positions all right so we're gonna dial five points up 5.4 before participating in graded events the soldiers spend time on the range gathering and confirming dope or data on previous engagements which includes temperature altitude humidity and even the weight and velocity of their ammunition give me a 7.8 elevation this data informs the shooters of how to adjust their rifles in order to hit their targets in any situation students also have to account for wind and how to properly read it on the path to their target 1.2 so basically they're just looking for the win what the elements are doing around them and then giving win calls based off that left point three students use a unit of measurement called miller radians or mills represented by the hash marks inside the shooter's scope to determine the wind's effect on their shot [Applause] so they're just telling the whole point five left or point two left and it's actually going inside their reticle those are all bad wing calls on my heart yeah very bad like opposite direction they have several opportunities to practice reading wind and gather dope with the m2010 ahead of their first graded record fire which takes place during week three i think this is the part of sniper school that everyone really likes that come here because they get to shoot shoot and you don't get to do this a lot in a normal army world point i personally love it that's why i came to sniper school i love shooting it's the most time that i've ever gotten on the gun so it's definitely good practice chase walk wind becomes an even bigger factor during movers training where students practice firing at moving targets when you go down range your target tree i.e the enemy doesn't typically want to stay in one spot when you start shooting at them so this helps them get into the right mindset and get them the tools and techniques so they can engage those targets effectively working in pairs students fire at moving targets ranging from 200 to 600 meters away and have two minutes to move between firing positions i got one yeah that's what i got shooters measure the target's speed in mills and must factor in their movement when determining where to aim their shot lead's going to be 0.8 winds moving from right to left so they're calling out those numeric values in mills based on what they should be holding left right of the target as it moves across the range would you hold 1.2 all this is really entails is you getting an accurate hold in front of the target so that as it moves towards the center of your reticle you will then fire preemptively so that the bullet will meet with the target as it moves across the range it's going to be a 0.7 going right to left go one mil it can be very confusing determining what side of the target you should be holding on should i be adding mils to the target as i'm going with the wind should it be taking mills away is like going against the wind point eight five five one right point eight hold your shooter and the spotter both need to be talking they both need to be talking about where the wind's coming from and trying to come up with those numbers in their heads so that makes it a little bit easier to do that fast math in your head what are you going to go 0.6 here now yeah 11.5 left 0.6 as we start to go deeper and deeper into the training they get better at it and we almost have 100 pass rate with movers so when you have a magazine you're going to want to settle it a little low although roughly 50 of the sniper course involves firing weapons marksmanship isn't the sole focus of training a sniper's secondary mission is to collect and report battlefield information but nine times out of ten that's the mission you're going to end up doing in order to collect battlefield information undetected students must master a wide array of field craft skills starting with how to properly construct a ghillie suit ghillie suits are a type of camouflage clothing that snipers use to blend in with their environment we use natural vegetation as well we tie that into our suit and helps us to blend in with whatever environment we could potentially be working in students bring their own ghillie suits to the sniper course which are usually constructed using an old uniform there's seriously no rules to it anything you want the sky's the limit and it's honestly up to the user to help achieve that blending effect netting and artificial camouflage like jute a fibrous plant-based material are used to break up the wearer's silhouette you might want to try to extend this some here to break up this straight line their ghillie suits are inspected at least three times while at the course we do a 360 inspection ensuring that there are points that generally get blown out such as the crotch of the pants armpits elbows stuff like that those high wear and tear areas are reinforced they're they're sewn down they're glued the achilles suit is constructed with a lot of blood sweat and tears it's it's not fun you're just sewing through all your like areas that could potentially rip taking a lot of time with really really thick needles and yarn and a lot of glue so i have probably eight to ten hours worth into my ghillie suit now including all the sewing and everything and i'd say that it's probably around a seven out of ten but there's always more you could do to it if constructed properly a ghillie suit can last a sniper their entire career so durability is key and it'll get put to the test during an event known as the ghillie wash the ghillie wash serves two purposes to season and add color to the student's ghillie suits and to test the suit's durability under pressure they know it's coming everybody who comes to the school talks about it and they all know kind of what to expect students start off by crawling and rolling across various terrains including pavement gravel and sand before getting sprayed by a fire hose which adds weight to their ghillie suits we incorporate exercises to make sure that they don't have any kind of tearing seams and stuff like that it's very important that you continue to push and it's very very important that you're able to get to and from wherever you're going with the small amount of people you have students then crawl on their stomachs and backs through muddy trenches to add color to their suits we're trying to get that color deeply rooted in the fabric crawling through the trench and under the sticks over there i would say that would be the top smoker it was like crawling on your back on a treadmill you weren't going anywhere and it kind of sucked it's tough i had mud in my eyes the whole time so i just couldn't see anything i was pretty much running blind crawling blind across the roads and stuff being physically fit being able to endure any kind of physical activities is definitely very very important because as a sniper you're going to be moving further with more weight than the average soldier for the final leg of the ghillie wash they crawl through a 200 foot long trench filled with water ranging in depth from a couple inches to a couple feet with their ghillie suits now weighed down with water students must make their way over walls and obstacles of varying heights all while maintaining a low profile we have them low crawling over any kind of like obstacles and stuff like that see if the area that they dragged themselves on will possibly peel up and again any kind of stitching is going to rip honestly it felt really good the cold water because of how hot it was outside but crawling over all the rocks and the sand was definitely uncomfortable it is a very physical event but it's completely necessary like we have to test out these ghillie suits to make sure they're going to withstand the test of time generally across the board you can usually see all smiles everybody's pretty happy everybody has their own little story of what happened to them it's good i'm very filthy right now i have a lot of dirt a lot of places with their ghillie suit seasoned students are ready to continue with the rest of their field craft training during range estimation exercises students must determine the distance to a given target using nothing but their eyes and rifle scope before the exercise begins they take measurements of their target which in this case was an instructor and a vehicle i get all the measurements from waist to top of the head waist to shoulders shoulder to shoulder or from toes to top of the head as well as multiple measurements on the vehicle itself so that they can measure out with their optic the size of the target at distance eyes up during the exercise students use only their eyes to estimate how far the target is at 10 different distances varying from 300 to 1 000 meters they teach us brackets if it's in the 1 to 200 meter bracket to them to 300 meter bracket and then we choose like if it's closer to 300 or 200 it's still a challenge to do by eye but using the reticle as long as you have proper measurements it's all just math when using their scopes students are taught to use the mill relation formula which takes the height of the target in inches multiplied by a constant and then divided by the target's height in mills the resulting number is the distance to the target in meters to be successful their estimates must be within five percent of the actual distance and they must accurately record at least 14 out of the 20 ranges to pass their graded exercise of the class we observed two students failed they have one more opportunity to pass or they'll be dropped from the sniper course it's an extremely important skill to be able to range estimate accurately as a sniper because we may not be in an environment that is permissive enough to allow us to use technology to estimate our range to our target so snipers need to know how to be able to measure and do the mill relation formula in order to determine their range of target all right turn around getting the prone eyes down during target detection training students scan a field in front of them for 10 military related items that have been strategically hidden by instructors some as small as a couple of inches target detection is a sniper's ability to detect anomalies in their environment we run them through a series of exercises here at the schoolhouse that reinforces their searching patterns searching techniques and their ability to actually pick up on anomalies using their eyes scopes and binoculars the class is given 40 minutes to search for the objects in a 10 000 square meter field and must accurately locate and record at least seven to be successful honestly it's only difficult if you're looking for items if you don't look for something specific and you just scan the area they'll pop out at you because the human eye hates patterns so when you see a disruption and a pattern it pops out at you students are taught several scanning techniques and look out for various target indicators such as shine shape texture and contrast to the background environment the human eye naturally scans left to right top to bottom and one thing that they hit on that was really big was scanning bottom to top right to left it kind of forces your mind to knock out its natural path you pick up things a lot easier i'm looking around this area right here and realizing the way the bark naturally looks they see this natural difference right here where the pattern's messed up and there's no longer any bark and focusing a little bit more on it you're able to find the the texture of the plastic color doesn't add up it's not that gray or that black anymore you got a little bit of a green might catch some kind of sheen coming off of it of the class we observed one student failed and was dropped from the sniper course field craft skills such as target detection are vital to their future careers as snipers if you see anything of note you log it down in one form or another as a sniper you're always doing that throughout an entire mission so ultimately that is the most important job of a sniper and it's the one that's ultimately most valuable to the commander because now he's getting a better picture of the objective or the battlefield [Music] field craft training culminates with stalk events where pairs of students must navigate through wooded terrain to observe their assigned target without being spotted by the instructors walking around them or by those observing from afar with binoculars students perform four practical stalk training exercises before moving on to graded events the class we observed was participating in their first practical exercise they're given 10 minutes to prepare themselves and their equipment the class covers themselves in natural vegetation that matches their surroundings utilizing hair ties and 550 cord that they've glued to their ghillie suits in order to truly blend in with your environment to get rid of the human signatures of the sides of the head shoulders the areas that are distinguishable you have to tie vegetation to your foreground background everything around you we just put like a real thick base layer on and took off towards the objective once the event begins students have two hours to reach an area from which they can observe their target which in this case was a truck and they must utilize the movement techniques they've been taught to stay out of sight freeze you two what do you think you look like right now walking through the woods stupid dude so if a team is trying to rush up to the objective like not moving tactically or in the movement techniques that would they have been previously taught we'll stop and we'll take their roster numbers down and they'll get doc 10 points and they'll also get moved back 100 meters or a terrain feature away whichever one is further and have them restart after explaining what they did wrong they can also get spotted by the observers watching from the back of the truck with tin power binoculars who then direct instructors walking in the woods to the student's location yeah roger's probably this guy right here that i got my flag on he was uh facing away from the truck so it's probably his back that you saw all right so you guys tracking right yo so thick is good right getting in that thick spot is good but you're playing a dangerous game right because you're mixing the potential overhead movement and look how close you guys are to the objective you are way too close to be causing this much movement it was kind of a shock to everyone how easily they could spot us once the students reach a spot in which they're able to view the truck they set up their final firing position camouflaging themselves and their equipment to match their new surroundings they must then observe and correctly record a scenario that takes place which in this case included two instructors setting up and firing a mortar round they're annotating and formulating what they observed into what we call a salute report as well as generating a call for fire request the students then have to accurately identify two letters held up by the observers on the back of the truck letter is up on time shooter you got id julia time what was it julia it's a good idea good id but in order to pass the exercise the students must evade detection by the observers scanning for them which can be easier said than done i've got apex of the triangle on top of the spotter's head you guys are standing and you open with the sun on your back right that naturally is going to cast shadow or catch glint off your optic you were able to observe the scenario and you both pid the letter that's good that's really good and that's what we want but none of that matters if you guys are able to be seen by the end of the practical exercise we observed none of the participating students received a passing grade i think a lot of them went in with maybe a little bit too much confidence and they thought well it looks pretty thick so i'm sure they won't see me the problem is the instructors that work here currently they have a lot of experience both real world and here at the schoolhouse it's a challenge it was pretty frustrating but at the end of the day like i think that i'm more motivated now than before because i know that i need to improve on things so i definitely have things i need to focus on to get better but i'm excited to do the next rep this class will have three more practical stalk exercises before starting their graded events of which they'll have three opportunities to pass but according to the army the majority of students from this class did not pass their graded stalk events and were dropped from the course sergeant terry on average just 47 of the 288 students who are accepted to the sniper course each year end up graduating those who are able to successfully complete the course will go on to teach the skills they've learned to the junior soldiers in their unit and could be deployed into combat as snipers immediately if necessary it's extremely rewarding to watch a soldier that has a small understanding of the weapon platform or the techniques to employ as a sniper and once they graduate the course their ability to perform as a sniper is outstanding you

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 674,761

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, Army, Snipers

Id: -ZMzfihqOkQ

Length: 21min 14sec (1274 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 11 2022