Snipers don’t typically advertise their presence
on the battlefield. This car was the hide site of the infamous South Armagh Sniper, who were
part of the IRA and ran a sniping campaign against the British Army from 1990 to 1997.
For the most part, military snipers could easily spend 24 to 72 hours sitting in the
hide anywhere, in the woods or in buildings. But how this US Army soldier became
a hero after surviving a sniper shot, why military snipers don’t typically go for
headshots and why their pants don’t have zippers, how the rotation of Earth can make snipers
miss their shot, and how in today’s warfare, drones have already replaced snipers
by large, is Not What You Think! On July 2nd, 2005, an Iraqi insurgent
sniper shot the US Army private first class, Stephen Tschiderer, while The sniper’s companions
were recording the whole ordeal with a camera. Tschiderer took a shot to the chest, but was
lucky because he was wearing his body armor. He scrambled over and took cover behind a
HUMVEE. Processing what had just happened, he starts pointing toward the direction
where he thinks the shot came from, and he was right. Within seconds, two vehicles
start driving toward the sniper, who was hiding inside a van with 2 other men. They start
driving away while being chased by the HUMVEEs, which at some point started shooting at the van
and injured the sniper, who then set off on foot. “uh we ended up finding a blood
trail from uh the wounds that he had received. Followed that through a few homes”
and then after a few minutes: “I jumped over the wall after him, just ran up, grabbed him, dragged
him out in the yard, patted him down to make sure he didn't have anything
else on him” But what happened next was amazing.
“I'm a medic it's my job doesn't matter Friend or Foe. As soon as he's put
down his weapons I got to treat him, so” Tschiderer might be the only medic ever
to have had the opportunity to help the sniper who had shot him in the chest.
“Uh to be truthful no I don't feel like a hero. I mean I'm a soldier. I got shot, I
reacted, covered my lane, went got him, turned him in and that's all”
Aside from special cases, like the snipers who visibly patrol the roof
of The White House as a deterrent , snipers do their best not to be visible, even
if they are right in front of you. And that’s regardless of the surrounding
environment. Here is a test: Can you spot the sniper? It’s actually a sniper
team, made up of a sniper and a spotter. Even though snipers are outstanding marksmen, there is no guarantee that they would
hit their target on the first try. On a clear day with no wind, a sniper
would most likely hit a target that’s up to 1000 yards away on the first try. And
if it’s a miss, the ‘splash’ of the round, which is where the round has landed in relation
to the target, would give clues to the adjustments needed for the next shot. The spotter would give
quick, concise and accurate feedback so the sniper can make the adjustment and send it again.
“All right, I want you raise it up a mill, and a quarter mil left. Re-engage”
“Got’em” But why would the sniper listen to the
spotter? Isn’t the sniper “the guy”? “Okay, the spotter is is the more experienced
of the two. There a lot of people think the sniper does everything. The shooter
is the one that pulls the trigger, is the one that knows everything. That's not
true. The spotter is the more experienced. He's the one that's doing all the math.
All the calculations for wind. What the shooter’s corrections need to be, and really
the rounds and the shooter's weapon are the spotters. He's going to tell the shooter
exactly what to do, and when to do it”. The biggest variable that impacts the accuracy
of a shot, is cross wind. Spotters commonly use a wind meter to measure the speed and direction
of the wind at their location, but the wind could be gusty and have different speeds between the
spotter and the target, which complicates things. Another important factor is gravity.
As the bullet flies toward the target, it is constantly pulled down by gravity.
Basically, the bullet follows an arc, not a straight line. The farther away from the target,
the higher above the target you have to aim. Typically all the adjustments are made
by tuning the elevation or windage knobs, and then lining up the target with the
center of the crosshairs in the scope. But if the sniper has already missed the
first shot, they need to act quickly, or the target may escape. So snipers may
just “hold over“ the crosshairs off target and use the fine measurement lines on the
crosshairs to make the adjustments instead. Aside from gravity, the rotation of Earth also
impacts the trajectory of the bullet. This is known as the Coriolis Effect. The Earth rotates
from west to east, and once the bullet leaves the barrel of the gun, the Earth rotates out from
underneath the bullet. So if you're shooting west, your target is going to rotate up and towards
you, and this causes the bullets to hit lower than expected. If you're facing East, the target
is going to be dropping down, which is going to cause the bullet to hit higher than anticipated.
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Rifle, Be the Savior of the Battlefield! To properly account for the impact of the
wind, gravity and the Coriolis effect, knowing the exact distance to the
target is crucial. To give you an idea, if the target was 870 yards away , but the spotter
incorrectly estimated the distance as 760 yards, the bullet would hit the target 8 inches lower
than expected, which can easily miss the target. This is why spotters use laser rangefinder,
which accurately calculate the distance by sending a laser pulse in a narrow beam towards
the target and measuring the time taken by the pulse to be reflected off the target and returned
to the sender. Consumer-grade rangefinders may work up to 100 yards or so, whereas handheld
military rangefinders operate at ranges of 1.2 to 15 miles and are combined with monoculars
or binoculars. The more powerful rangefinders are normally installed on a tripod and could see
up to 25 miles away, according to Wikipedia! On that note, the world record for the longest
sniper kill was broken in November 2023, by a 58-year old Ukrainian sniper, Vyacheslav
Kovalsky, when he shot a Russian soldier from a distance of 2.3 miles. That’s greater than the
length of two Brooklyn Bridges in a row, and the bullet would have traveled for almost 9 seconds.
To prove this claim, this video was made public. While a sniper is holding the rifle, each breath
and the actual pull of the trigger slightly move the whole system. These tiny changes are
amplified as the distance to the target increases, to the point that even a heartbeat can impact the
accuracy of the shot. This is why snipers need to be calm, to reduce their heartbeat, so they can
pull the trigger in between heartbeats. In fact, National Geographics once brought
a sniper in and measured the exact time that he pulled the trigger … which was
bang on in the middle … just like his shot! By the way, military snipers generally do not go
for headshots. Think about it. Heads are small, and they move around a lot, making them a
difficult target, especially from longer distances. The target of a military sniper
is most likely more than 330 yards away, so they instead aim for the center mass,
which is the upper portion of the chest, and that gives them a larger target,
and a higher kill probability Police snipers, on the other hand,
generally shoot at much shorter distances, and may attempt a more precise
shot at a particular body part, like the head, especially if the
target is hiding behind a hostage. Hitting a moving target is much more
complicated than hitting a stationary target, and that’s where these robots come into the
picture. They can tell where each round hit, and can communicate to the shooter whether or
not it was effective in killing the target. Now take all these factors into account, and just imagine how much more challenging
it would be to hit these moving targets from a moving helicopter. So how do aerial
snipers manage to hit these targets? For stability, aerial snipers place
their rifle on an X harness or a sling, which helps absorb the vibrations
of the helicopter. But even then, aerial snipers typically don’t engage with
targets that are more than 220 yards away, compared to ground snipers who could
engage at distances of over 1000 yards. It is possible to hover in place and take a
shot, but that makes the helicopter a much more vulnerable target for counter attacks.
This is why sometimes using a machine gun on a moving helicopter is preferred
to sniping. The helicopter pilot, who also acts as the spotter, plays
an important role in keeping the bird stable and positioning it so that
the sniper can take a better shot. But on the ground, a sniper's greatest
asset is not their weapon. Rather, it is their ability to stay hidden. Afterall,
a sniper who is found is more often than not, a dead sniper, which way they
prefer to dress up for the occasion. This is the Ghillie suit, and it’s the primary
article of clothing that snipers use for concealment, but the Ghillie suit itself is not
the camouflage. Snipers need to first “veg up”, which means attaching branches, leaves, or
other things to the Ghillie suit in order to break up the 5 curves on the human body that
are recognizable to the eye: sides of the neck connecting to the shoulders, armpits, and the
groin. According to some snipers, vegging up can be dirty and itchy. Of course, the veg-up
varies according to the terrain. For example, in dry grassland the sniper will typically
wear a ghillie suit covered in dead grass. The clothing that a sniper wears also has some
unique features, and no, they don’t buy all their supplies and clothing from Target!
For example, the fly on sniper pants is not made of a zipper or Velcro. Because of
all the crawling that snipers need to do, dirt and debris can get stuck in zippers
and Velcro, making them unusable. Imagine, you have been hiding for hours and now you want
to quietly relieve yourself. The last thing you want is a stuck zipper. This is why sniper pants
have buttons instead of zippers. And just like doctors without borders, these are snipers without
diapers! That luxury is reserved for astronauts! Cordura 500 fabric is sewn
on the front of the clothing, which not only protects the body against rot
and mildew, but is also quite abrasion resistant Painting the face with colors that blend in with
the environment and also vegging up the rifle, are other important aspects of concealment. But the
toughest part of a sniper’s job is yet to come. One of the most difficult aspects of the sniper
training course is stalking. Snipers have to learn to move slowly, patiently and methodically for
a stealthy approach toward their target. During the stalking portion of the training, trainees
spend a couple of hours moving at a snail's pace through a wooded area with the goal of sneaking
up and taking a shot at their instructors. The instructors on the other side are looking
for the trainees, hoping to find them first. During combat, after spending days crawling,
climbing, stinking, getting scratched and bit by bugs, the sniper arrives at their hide
site, where they remain concealed until they need to take action. Even though shooting at
targets is just one part of a sniper’s role, it’s the only one that is highlighted in
movies. In reality, snipers play an arguably even more critical role. Reconnaissance,
which is about 90% of what they do. If a sniper can get within shooting distance
from their target, they can also observe the enemy and their movements. That information can
then be sent back to orchestrate artillery fire or an air strike. The sniper can then report back
whether or not the target was hit effectively. This is why aside from marksmanship,
observation and intelligence gathering, survival skills and land navigation, are
things that snipers need to excel at. The key to success is teamwork between the spotter and
the sniper, but not everyone is made for this job. The qualification course at the Army Sniper School
in Fort Benning, Georgia, is seven weeks long, where any military branch or federal agency
can send their candidates. And because in 2015, the US military opened all combat
jobs to women, Sgt. Maciel Hay became the very first US Army active-duty female
sniper after graduating in November 2023. According to the instructors at
Fort Benning, only 4 out of 10 candidates make it through the course.
In many ways, the psychological impact imposed by snipers is quite similar to those
of landmines and IEDs. Just like booby traps, snipers pose a constant threat, with a high "per
event" lethality, and it’s quite difficult for the other side to strike back at them. In fact,
extensive use of sniper tactics can be used to induce constant stress and fear in opposing
forces, making them afraid to move about. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that it takes a
special kind of person to become a sniper. I’m not saying they don’t have feelings, but the
running joke is that the first thing a sniper feels after pulling the trigger, is recoil. That
said, there is a very dangerous side to this job. If captured by the enemy, snipers are
more likely to be mistreated compared to non-snipers. The rationale is that
ordinary soldiers shoot at each other at “equal opportunity” while snipers have a
relatively low risk of receiving retaliation. This is why snipers who find themselves in a
dangerous situation, try to get rid of their Ghillie suit and rifle, so if captured, they
could try and hide their identity. But how do you catch a sniper, and what could
be done to make snipers less effective? High value targets is what snipers are
usually after, so as a passive countermeasure, officers remove their rank insignia from their
battle uniforms or use subdued insignia, which is more difficult to identify. In addition, avoiding
exaggerated saluting in the open or even setting up “no salute zones” means snipers have a lesser
chance of identifying higher ranking officers. Examples of active countermeasures
include using your own snipers against the enemy snipers. After
all, it takes one to know one! The use of canine units is also popular, which
had been very successful during the Vietnam War. To replace a sniper, you don’t necessarily
need a sophisticated rifle-carrying drone that can take precision shots from
the sky. Drones have already proven extremely effective in the Ukraine war. They
can both drop munitions on the enemy positions, and provide reconnaissance to help adjust
artillery shots. Drones have in fact made the job much more difficult for snipers,
since drones equipped with thermal cameras can expose even well-camouflaged snipers as
their body heat is likely to expose them.
