US Army Hosted a Competition to Find Europe’s Best Military Snipers

• Eu snipers accumulated on a US base in Germany in August for a global festival.
• The 2022 model of the Eu Highest Sniper Group Festival used to be some of the greatest ever.
• It happened as Russia’s assault on Ukraine highlights the continuing worth of sniper operations.

Once a year, the most efficient snipers from round Europe display up in a US army base in Germany to decide who has the most efficient sniper staff at the continent.

Final 12 months, the Eu Highest Sniper Group Festival, hosted via the USA Military, had one in all its greatest occasions ever towards the backdrop of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, which has proven that sniper operations are as necessary as ever.

The Eu Highest Sniper Group Festival

In overall, 36 groups from 18 NATO allies and spouse international locations put their marksmanship talents to the check right through 11 days of occasions. A number of of the groups got here from special-operations gadgets.

The organizers adapted the contest to be sensible and packed it with demanding situations impressed via real-world battles. The development happened at Hohenfels Coaching Space in Germany, the place the USA Military’s seventh Military Coaching Command oversees US and world workout routines.

The groups finished occasions that incorporated aerial taking pictures, transferring goals, high-angle goals, unknown-distance goals, and trench struggle. The sniper groups had been additionally examined on concentrated on, stalking, small-arms marksmanship, and middle of the night operations.

One match used to be in response to the “Black Hawk Down” struggle that happened in Mogadishu in 1993.

All the way through the struggle, US Military Grasp Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. First Magnificence Randy Shughart, each snipers assigned to Delta Drive, asked to be inserted to protect a crashed Black Hawk helicopter. Dealing with overwhelming odds, Gordon and Shughart had been each killed and in the end won posthumous Medals of Honor.

The “Mogadishu” match examined the competition aerial taking pictures skills, in step with Sgt. 1st Magnificence Anthony Stegmeier, who used to be fit director for the contest.

“Traditionally it is the ‘Black Hawk Down’ situation,” Stegmeier stated in a press unlock. “Shooters will shoot from a static and a strafing place within the airplane, after which they are going to have to visit a downed pilot place, go back fireplace to the enemy, after which convey the pilot again to a protected location.”

There used to be additionally an enchanting first within the festival: a joint American-Lithuanian sniper staff, the made of partnership between the Pennsylvania Military Nationwide Guard and the Lithuanian army.

The staff had one US soldier and one Lithuanian. The United States staff member, US Military Sgt. Dalton Weist, used his Lithuanian counterpart’s weapon. “When you get to this point, the only factor this is common is guns,” Weist stated in a unlock.

This is not the one world sniper festival. The United States special-operations neighborhood holds a equivalent match once a year for special-operations gadgets from around the globe.

The winners

Snipers from Greece’s Particular Paratroopers Segment, referred to as the ETA for its Greek initials, got here in first. Groups from Latvia and Italy had been 2d and 3rd, whilst some other Greek special-operations staff from the Z’MAK amphibious particular missions unit used to be fourth. A Slovenian staff rounded out the highest 5.

Modeled on Britain’s SAS, the ETA makes a speciality of strategic reconnaissance and direct-action missions. It has lower than 100 operators who’re divided into six groups, each and every of which makes a speciality of a unique insertion approach, similar to free-fall parachuting, struggle diving, and mountain struggle.

The ETA additionally not too long ago won the absolute best operational certification from NATO’s Particular Operations Headquarters.

Global coaching occasions and competitions just like the Eu Highest Sniper Group Festival are necessary for relationship-building amongst allies and spouse militaries.

Additionally they build up interoperability. In a battle, NATO militaries could be anticipated to battle in large part as one drive. Having the similar techniques, ways, and procedures can maximize their effectiveness at the battlefield.

“Those multinational competitions are about constructing relationships and sharing talents between the members,” Command Sgt. Maj. Jeremiah Inman, US Military Europe and Africa’s senior enlisted chief, stated in a unlock. “All of those elite warriors will go away with extra technical and tactical talent, in addition to a heightened sense of partnership and interoperability.”

Snipers and trendy struggle

The struggle in Ukraine has proven yet again why snipers are a very powerful asset for any army.

Many of the combating in Ukraine has taken position in or round city facilities, starting from small villages like Vuhledar to huge towns like Kharkiv.

Certainly, snipers can actually have a strategic affect in a struggle in the event that they take out a senior enemy officer or accumulate intelligence that informs high-level determination making.

Within the generation of drones and precision-guided missiles, snipers proceed to play a very powerful function at the battlefield, and occasions just like the Eu Highest Sniper Group Festival create higher shooters.