Australian Defence Force

[TOCC]

Wont ever be an official release from the ADF, but 2'800m sniper shot by Commando Sniper

The Mentoring Task Force's pulling out of Uruzgan. You might think the Taliban is exultant. If so you would be wrong.
Here is one among hundreds of reasons why. Earlier this year a Commando sniper team was secreted in Helmand. Through binoculars at a distance invisible to the naked eye they spotted a group of Taliban. The soldiers having means of identifying targets went through a process of obtaining verification and permission to engage.

Two marksmen using Barrett M82A1 50 calibre rifles simultaneously fired. The bullets were six seconds in the air. One killed the Taliban commander. It is not known for certain which sniper fired the fatal shot.

While there have been no triumphant press releases, in the tight global Special Forces sniper community the shot is much discussed, because it seems certain to be a world record.
As the bullet yawed through the thin air on a windless morning, GPS aids measured the distance at 2815m. That amounts to 2 1/2 times the length of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The targeted Taliban would not have heard the gunfire.

The previous world record achieved by British Corporal Craig Harrison occurred also in Helmand in November 2009. Firing from a distance of 2475m, Harrison killed two Taliban.

While British, American and Canadian sharpshooters are often celebrated the Australian Defence Force says nothing. When I sought to check this story I was politely told I could not be assisted.Fair enough. We are not talking about an Olympic event. An expert I did prise a few words from said that shooting at that distance beyond the weapons capability calls for luck, but it had still taken skill.

Delta Company of 2 Commando Regiment based at Holsworthy finished its tour months back. They are also not talking up what is seen as another day in the office.

All through southern Afghanistan the insurgency counts further costs. Since 2011 the Australian Special Operations Task Group has combined with the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Afghan National Interdiction Unit to conduct a counter nexus program with a devastating impact on the Taliban bank balance. There have been costs too. Private Nathanael Galagher and Lance Corporal Mervyn McDonald from 2 Commando were killed during a counter nexus mission in August.

DEA Regional Director Mike Marsac told me he sees no distinction between the drug lords and the Taliban. By their own choice the Americans forged a working relation with Australian commandos because they got results. The operations are timed to strike at the drug labs when the principals are in place and the farmers have been paid off. While you have heard little of it here, over there, hundreds of labs have been destroyed with billions of dollars lost to the insurgency.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...es-chris-masters/story-e6frezz0-1226504862496

 

[cyclopath]

Jeepers, that's a shot!
Reminds me of an excellent novel about snipers called Holding the Zero, Gerald Seymour.

 

[ChargerWA]

Wont ever be an official release from the ADF, but 2'800m sniper shot by Commando Sniper

I suspect they are also probably playing it down a bit too because they are realistic enough to know that it involved a huge chunk of luck. They would have been taking these shots the whole campaign and would have been landing 1 in a blue moon. A quick calc tells me that a 750 grn pill at 2700fps out of a .50BMG will fall 27 metres over 1600 metres. Add 1200 metres and I am surprised they can get enough elevation out of their optics setups to even take the shot.

Not to take anything away from the guys who took the shot, you need to be on the ground with the knowledge and skills to even be in the game so they do deserve recognition.

The best thing in the article is the information regarding the seeming success against the drug trade. It's not something we have heard too much about other than the Americans aerial herbicide spraying program with no consultation with the local farmers and the discontent that caused.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Anti drug trade. Consider the yacht out of Equador recently discovered wrecked on an atoll off Tonga with 200+ kg of cocaine on board (and a dead body). This yacht was tracked out of Equador by the authorities and was lost one month ago when it was 1600 km away from where it was eventually found.

We will never win the battle against illegal drugs.

 

[TOCC]

I suspect they are also probably playing it down a bit too because they are realistic enough to know that it involved a huge chunk of luck. They would have been taking these shots the whole campaign and would have been landing 1 in a blue moon. A quick calc tells me that a 750 grn pill at 2700fps out of a .50BMG will fall 27 metres over 1600 metres. Add 1200 metres and I am surprised they can get enough elevation out of their optics setups to even take the shot.

Not to take anything away from the guys who took the shot, you need to be on the ground with the knowledge and skills to even be in the game so they do deserve recognition.

The best thing in the article is the information regarding the seeming success against the drug trade. It's not something we have heard too much about other than the Americans aerial herbicide spraying program with no consultation with the local farmers and the discontent that caused.

It's the nature of the SF world which is why it's not been officially released(confirming or denying a capability).. You raise some good points in regards to the shot, there is luck involved in the sense of wind change or the target moving.. But drop shot and factoring the gravity cosine is all very precise..

SOTG have been targeting the drug trad for a couple of years now...

 

[ChargerWA]

True their calculations and methods are very accurate, but the limiting factor would be the optics. They would have had their elevation maxed out at that range and then would have been holding over on gut instinct hoping to land in the ballpark.

 

[TOCC]

the guys know the distance at which they will be operating before they go out and train for those distances even if that means aiming off and their are ways to partly mitigate optic limitations such as MOA bases..Yes it was an extreme shot which is why it is a world record, still a world record nonetheless and a remarkable effort to get it first round.