by Chris Martin
The popularized notion of the lone sniper, out in the brush for days with no connection to their commanders until after executing a lethal mission and extracting to report their results, is one increasingly left for the history books.
Camouflaged sniper. Image is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Similarly, the once all-important role of the sniper/observer has been diminished in recent years as they are less and less frequently called upon to serve as the primary source of “eye’s on” intelligence.
Today’s global conflicts are quickly becoming defined by technologies that would have seemed like science fiction just a short time ago. Roving robotic ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) platforms piloted from the other side of the planet deliver real-time imagery that, when synched with orbital multispectral sensors peering down from space and scoured by powerful supercomputers, lend the United States’ counterterrorism apparatus an ‘unblinking eye’ over the battlefield (or whatever you’d prefer to call its modern-day equivalent).
Infrared lasers are signaled from the sky and directed to the earth, pinpointing the exact location of enemy troops, like a finger from the heavens. These spotlights are invisible to all except the elite troops for whom they are intended thanks to their wide-angle field-of-view night observation devices—just one example among the hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment on their person intended to best exploit their millions of dollars of training.
The unprecedented degree of situational awareness and connectedness they are granted allows them to regularly track down and overwhelm their quarry.
However stark the changes, these advancements have not rendered the sniper obsolete. While their role has evolved, today’s snipers are more relevant and effective than ever before.
Supported and empowered by these new toys and the tactics they have spurred, a single, connected, and unseen warfighter who can deliver precision fire is a devastating asset in the field.
The original concept of Modern American Snipers largely grew out of the research I had been conducting for another book series, Engines of Extinction. While fiction, EoE is deeply enmeshed in the real world (military, science and technology, and geopolitics) and greatly concerned with the emerging technologies that will continue to shape the way shadow wars are conducted in the years and decades ahead.
During this examination, it struck me that even as the tools of the trade are evolving, special operation snipers continue to play an outsized role in the Global War on Terror, a topic well deserving a (nonfiction) book devoted exclusively to exploring that revelation further.
It is not as it once was—snipers have transitioned from almost spiritual sharpshooters who relied on an innate feel of the wind and their environment, to quick-thinking mathematicians, to tech-equipped specialists who utilize laser rangefinders and ballistic computers to rapidly calculate firing solutions.
While some of the ‘romance’ may be gone, they’ve become more fearsome and efficient as a result and their training continues to expand their potential.
SEAL snipers, Ranger snipers, Delta Force snipers… While in many ways considerably different from one another, each lends their respective units’ unique capabilities that are absolutely vital to achieving mission success.
Since 9/11, there’s been a wide-ranging drive to rapidly develop new technologies and push them to the field as quickly as possible in order to provide our troops with the most decisive advantages possible. Special Capabilities Office, Rapid Reaction Technology Office, Ground Applications Program Office and DARPA’s Adaptive Execution Office are just a few of the numerous entities that have been either formed or prioritized over the past decade directly toward those aims.
But as the technological sprint has continued forward, some of these developments appear to be directly aimed at reducing the need for the military to have such highly-trained and specialized snipers.
DARPA—the same agency credited with developing the internet, GPS, and other world-altering advancements—has successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of EXACTO (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordinance), a guided .50 caliber sniper round.
There’s also TrackingPoint, a weapon system that allows the user to simply ‘tag’ a target and the rifle then takes care of much of the rest—calculating numerous atmospheric variables and automatically firing the shot so long as its user holds down the trigger and correctly aligns the crosshairs as determined by the onboard computer.
And in a slightly different direction, there’s also been the development of the Switchblade UAS and other precision drone munitions systems that allow remotely piloted vehicles to fill the sniper role under specific conditions.
Does that mean in the near future every soldier will effectively be a sniper?
No, not even remotely.
I asked some highly accomplished snipers what they thought of these developments. Their reactions were largely the same—part dismissal and another part that can be best described as you might have expected Detroit autoworkers to react when first introduced to automated factory robots.
However, further discussion made it clear that today’s SOF snipers are not at risk of technological unemployment. Taking and making the shot is only a small fraction of the job they do.
These new sniper-centric innovations will almost certainly ease the difficulty of fielding designated marksman—infantry squads’ sharpshooters—while augmenting their performance. However, as far as snipers go, the technology will do little other than extend their reach (and look for the long distance sniper records to be shattered in the coming years).
However fancy the kit, the warfighter remains the most important part of the equation. A special operations sniper may need to identify an infiltration method, hike 20 kilometers, and then make a death-dying climb up the side of a building just to get into position to pull the trigger. And their specialized training allows them to use a building’s acoustics to their advantage, making the shot sound as if it came from another room (or even building) to enable their escape, whereas someone less skilled but armed with a self-guided weapon may make that same shot but find themselves cornered by their target’s confederates moments later.
The awareness needed to correctly discern targets from noncombatants and the intelligence to know when to fire and when to hold back requires savvy and training as well.
And that doesn’t even take into account the expanded duties carried out by today’s snipers. For example, a Delta Force sniper not only needs to be a world-class long-distance marksman, but also a world-class close-quarters combatant, and a world-class craftsman in the art of high-risk close target reconnaissance. These warriors typically boast several years of experience at the Tier 1 level prior to becoming snipers with Delta. And the aforementioned ‘several years’ are generally only embarked upon following several years of service in another special operations unit first.
The world and the way its wars are waged will continue to evolve. Powered exoskeletons, 3D printing on the battlefield, magnetorheological fluid body armor, and increasingly automated drone elements are just some of the technologies being developed that could reshape combat with their introduction.
However, expect the sniper to continue to exist, adapt, and thrive—enhanced, not supplanted, by these developments.
CHRIS MARTIN is a journalist who writes for SOFREP and is the author of ebooks, Shaping the World From the Shadows: The (Open) Secret History of Delta Force, Post-9/11 and Beyond Neptune Spear: The (Open) Secret History of SEAL Team Six, Post-9/11. His latest book is Modern American Snipers.