By Cpl Paul Millar
Photos Peter Dobson
(http://petergdobson.
zenfolio.com/p964786117)
| 31
International
By Cpl Paul Millar
Photos Peter Dobson
A
sniper team
from the
Army Ranger
Wing (ARW) finished
second in the US
Army International
Sniper Competition
in November. The
72-hour competition was held in Fort
Benning and had 36
teams from across
the world. It is the
second year in a row
that we have taken
home silver and
were only defeated
by an Olympic gold
medal winning
US team.
The competition
had 14 events and
included a sniper
stalk with roving
foot and car patrols,
urban shooting, firing under 'stressful' conditions and various other tests of sniping
and marksmanship.
The stress fire was from a barricade, running back 10m for each round fired, with
targets ranged from 500m – 800m. The
night shoot was timed to three minutes
with the teams having to engage five
targets with their NVS. This was followed
by an unknown distance shoot from two
bunkers and a 4.5-mile march in which the
Irish team were the fastest.
They were all conducted continuously
over the three days and were as realistic
and instinctive as possible; mirroring the
SNIPER
COMPETITION
experiences encountered
in today's multinational
operations.
Lt Kieran Woulfe, chief
sniper instructor in the
Infantry Weapons Wing
(IWW) said, "We could have
sent any DF team and they
would have been well placed
given the current standard of
sniping in Ireland. The outstanding
performance by this year's representatives from the ARW is not
only a testament to their own hard
work but also to that of the high
quality of sniper training being carried out at brigade and unit level
within the DF."
The lessons learned from this
competition will be shared by the
IWW during the following events:
sniper seminar (09th April), sniper
concentration (20th -24th May)
and the sniper instructor course
(3rd June - 26th July).
www.military.ie the defence forces magazine