Iran sniper rifle acquisitions, page 1

Planeman,

Semi's give you some major advantages when it comes to clustered targets since they allow you to prerange (say) a linear roadway or intersection feature and then simply advance the muzzle up a vehicle convoy or patrol unit. While direct hits should /always/ be possible on vehicle targets, it must be recognized that .50 fragments will tear a man up pretty good, even from a near miss.

Even as the faster you can shoot /well/, in the first few rounds, the less the overlapping reports will be differentiable as well.

That said, the real problem, if these things make their way into any kind of OOTW context, is that you can now treble the range around any given ground action where sniping can give support and thus must 'secure' the equivalent number of multistory buildings or other raised terrain features in say an urban battle zone. If there are an average of 1.5 such areas per acre in Baghdad with the correct grazing angle/LOS now there could be as many as 4.5.

And thats a MAJOR hit in terms of restricted maneuver and predictable ops plans.

Not least of this potential is the certainty of counter sniper operations against U.S. teams doing the same for our guys. We are outnumbered over there 12:1 and look nothing like the natives. Having already lost, what was it, SIX snipers in a single engagement, we would do well to remember our conspicuity and vulnerability when .50 rounds start to ventillate walls in OUR sniper nests.

Having said that, the principle danger is always going to be the unexpected and /unmarked/ attack on oil infrastructure and shipping. There is an amazing amount of damage you can do to a pressurized well head or transfer casing with a .50 round and the castings are NOT CHEAP OR QUICK to replace.

Since NTISR is now the principle mission of all our airpower in both regions, it must be said that the ability to attack without direct (proximal) approach probably means quite a bit to insurgents hell bent on achieving damage to their own future without having to emplace or rocket explosives. Targeting Pods and even Predator FLIR will be locked onto a 1-2 mile strip around the oil lines and such. While direct approach systems (UGS nets or remote GMTR etc.) will also be biased towards an alarm threshold which a good gunner team may not necessarily broach.

At sea, you can use a helicopter or even a fishing boat 'on the horizon' to make very long range bridge, weapons, sensor or (in the case of tankers) hatchcover/transfer system kills though clearly above deck hits will require a larger slant and higher altitude or closer approach while moving small targets will be more difficult to hit.

The real problem will come when the Iranians copy or steal the barrel technology and then adapt it to use cargo munitions. With these, entire units will be vulnerable to top attack and it will only require a skilled shooter (or a BORS type sight) to allow single units, under cover, (something say a mortar cannot do) to inflict very heavy attrition once something like an IED stops everybody to deal with the wounded and damaged vehicles. Indeed, it is theoretically possible to replace radio detonation of explosives by using AMR/SPR to 'remote activate' plastic or caps in an environment of heavy jamming or network blackouts.

I frankly don't give a rat's behind how many of their cops get capped by drug runners, NONE of these rifles have a legitimate use in Arab or Iranian hands over there. Not One.

If Steyr has a V3 problem with that then it's time we dumped a 20,000 free M16s onto their next Assault Rifle customer. Or denied sales of hunting and pistol systems on the U.S. market. If they are part of a larger industrial group, then making their parent organization 'feel the pain' of affiliation should also be an option, 'right well and soon'.

KPl.