Wraith wrote:I know the US military is moving to an "Advanced Sniper" setup. Instead of 2 man sniper teams they are moving to a 4-6 man teams and putting MUCH more emphasis on Intelligence gathering.
Interesting info. Half my platoon originally came from other platoons that would be classed as ISTAR assets. AT - Jav/MILAN being the best optics system other than what the C2 has for us, Recce Pl being the most prominent in the int role and usually teams deploying for int and movement reporting/location overwatch were 1 sniper, 2 recce, and 1 AT. We have only deployed in training like this, and I thought it was a good idea for longer term obs taskings, instead of clear 'send it' taskings. UKSF have been operating like this since the Falklands (granted, at a far higher level). I did ops in 4 man OP teams as far back as 2003, but was attached elsewhere temporarily at that stage.
Every sniper is still trained individually, as has been the case for many years. You're doing your obs, shooting, ranging, fieldcraft, nav and stalking on your own as an individual effort. Upon badging (qualification), you will operate in peacetime as pairs within the Bn ORBAT and for training (the more traditional trigger/spotter), and until Afghan, deployed for the likes of BATUS like this, usually in 2-4 pairs. Usually the trigger men would be the junior of the pair, with the more experienced being the eyes/spotter. If trigger gets a kill, it's not his, it's the spotter's claim. He does all the maths. Experience counts on a shot. With the current tempo, even the junior lads are extremely competent with the windage tables, and are very effective as single elements (as seen on attachments to FOBs etc). Great for the discipline imo, and because of my rank I admit I'm jealous at the operational time the younger lads are getting to perfect their skill. In very recent times, the whole training discipline of basic marksmanship within the Army has changed to a current theatre specific structure. Not a bad thing. For one, the basic annual test is harder which should go some way to 'forcing' an improvement in marksmanship throughtout all arms for UK Forces. As this is sniper pl's bread and butter, we are still jealous of the US mil's level of basic level marksmanship. I personally look on in envy at the ability of support troops to be effective marksmen within the US. We still run rings round you guys in terms of patrolling/tabbing, where being big feckers means very little though

Support arms cannot hit sh1t half the time, and tend to require 1 to 1 coaching for a protracted period to enable them to pass even the previous APWT, which is a disgrace imo.
@telecam, the thread title asks about 'real life' too buddy
EDIT:
Herbiie wrote:Entirely depends on the environment the Sniper is in. Gaz's experience is in counter-insurgency work, and is not always 100% relevant to PR, which is out right warfare rather than counter-insurgency (except insurgency mode

).
My last operational trigger work was during the 2003 ground war. A full scale war, not an insurgency. That stuff all kicked off in 2004, which Allied forces were caught on their back foot about. I was never allowed to carry out my current qualification in NI as a junior soldier. It was too '"visually aggressive". I take your point in regards to Afghan etc when comparing it to PR's battlespace though; you are right. Now I get to mix my experiences
