US snipers to defend Iraq oil pipeline

Australian Broadcasting Company ^ | October 05 2003 | AFP

[knighthawk]

The United States military has deployed five teams of 10 airborne snipers to defend Iraq's northern oil pipelines from acts of sabotage by forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein.

Sergeant Brian Stinson said final modifications were being made to Blackhawk UH-60 helicopters, before snipers from the elite Tiger Force could begin patrols along the crucial oil supply lines.

"There is so much area to cover that it requires precision fire, we're on call for 24-hours a day and can be airborne within 30 minutes," he said.

Protection of Iraq's northern pipelines, which stretch 500 kilometres to Turkey and almost to Syria, are a major headache for the American troops, who have devised a series of initiatives to combat sabotage.

This includes the creation of local protection units made-up of the fledgling Iraqi police forces.

Local tribes have also been hired to protect supplies with mixed success.

Armed with 50-calibre M107s, 308 bolt actions and 308 semi-automatics, the Tiger Force deployment also marks the return of airborne snipers in the regular US Army for the first time since the Indochinese wars of the 1960s and 70s.

The 308 bolt is for "personal targets" that limit collateral damage among civilians, with a medium range of almost one kilometre.

Sergeant Stinson said the 50-calibre is for longer range work, capable of killing a person from 2.5 kilometres, and the concussion alone from a round that passes within a close enough distance can kill.

The Tiger Force first won fame in the Vietnam War where it was established by Colonel David Hackworth, the highest decorated US soldier in that conflict.

"It's the same system we used in Vietnam and we've brought it out of retirement," Sergeant Stinson said.

Helicopter pilots from the 101st Airborne Division have trained specifically for ferrying snipers along the pipelines.

Pilots fly at night without light and must keep the Blackhawk in the air and position the helicopter behind, between valleys and hills, which muffles the sound of the rotors while remaining mostly out of view.

However, at the same time, the sniper's sights remain on the target allowing for "precision fire".

"We can hit a target before it knows we're there," Sergeant Stinson, a sniper with the 101st Airborne, said.

Iraq's main pipeline runs from oil-rich Kirkuk north to the Dohuk province and then on westward to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan.

[Squantos]

Gurkas still operational ? Last I heard they were disbanded or "absorbed" into regular British army units. I have a Kukuri that was given to me by one of em in 73. Huge blade and razor friggin sharp . My choice for carry was and is still the Randall 14.

IMHO a few LP/OP 's strung out with thermal could call in blackhawks and use their GAU2B's on the pipeline sappers. The surgical precision of a "trained" sniper is a waste of assets IMHO when used in such a manner as this. Where the lines pass thru urban or built up areas.....yes. Across the desert........no. Just my opinion of course.

Stay Safe Archy !!............Gurka babes ??? they sure are Purdy !

[archy]

I picked up one of those Ishapore SMLE rifles in 308 and have 'sporterized' it just a bit The whole thing from soup to nuts set me back less than 300 bucks. I'm going to see if I can bag a whitetail with it. I don't even think they were ever fired. They're available on the net for about 120 bucks or so.

Remember that the screw-type ejector of the British Service Model Lee Enfield upon which the Ishapore 2A and 2A1 .308 Bolt rifles were based [they're not a *pure* #1 Mk III S.M.L.E., though Ishapore previously made some fine ones] was meant to be used with the rimmed .303 cartridge, and may give much less satisfactory results with rimless .308/ 7,62 NATO cartridges, depending on which of the very many versions of .308/7,62 brass is used- The cartridge is loaded in a bewildering variety of variations in many different countries and at many different periods in the last six decades, and rim dimensions may differ. And when the British were searching for a similar conversion for their #4 Mark 1 [T] rifles converted to 7,62mm as L42A1 sniper's rifles, they went to a very different arrangement, with a seperate ejector permanently welded to the body of the magazine instead.

For additional info, check out Njaneer's Ishapore collector's info or one of the several Enfield owner/user/collector's sites. Or freepmail me.

But I far, FAR prefer the Enfields in their original chambering, not only for reliabilities sake.

-archy-/-

[Squantos]

I have a old TRW M1A that was built up for me by a Marine Armorer in 78. It is my favorite rifle. I recently purchased a new NM from SA in their loaded version as I fell that they are an endangered species and wanted a few more lying around the country available to me if the balloon should ever go up.

All my M1A's are fed mexican match from Lake City or Federal Match 168gr commercial. I reload for hunting and IDPA competition but stick to commercial or issue for working guns.

My goal righ now is to find an brookfeild M1A scope mount. Ebay had one a few months ago but at 300$ I had to go to work and lost the bid. Every see one laying around scream at me ! Alledgedly Smith Inc has the mount closest in make to the Brookfield version but I haven't tried it yet.

The early SA scopes (1987-88 timeframe) were actually made by Burris and used their RAC technology. Who makes these for SA these days ??

Stay Safe and reload safer !

[Squantos]

Yep all I'm doing these days is eatin too many cookies and flying a desk !.....back surgery went well, I can walk again without pain......:o)

Now to get back to fighting weight ........Stay Safe Eaker !

[_Jim]

Beats the heck out of the Motorola Talkabout and Cobra FRS radios ...

LOL!

Those little radios are actually quite amazing ... built with surface mount components, they will run several days on 3 AA's ... with a 'special buy' in quantity they can be operating in another band quite easily, incorporate such features as 'power saver' for extended receive life, utilize UHF which is an ideal frequency urban areas (inside metal framed glass-enclosed vehicles like cars, HUMVEES) ... some are even water proof ... none of the old 'Jobcoms' or Wilsons were any of that ...

[PLMerite]

"White feather in the field."

Nah, you wouldn't have been able to spot him even that close. NVA soldiers almost tripped over him more than once.

[Ditter]

Too bad my husband is too old to volunteer. This would be right up his alley! Even at 68 he is a fantastic rifle shot. I can just see him in his camo & hiding in his terrorist blind. tee hee <8~|

[archy]

Gurkas still operational ? Last I heard they were disbanded or "absorbed" into regular British army units. I have a Kukuri that was given to me by one of em in 73. Huge blade and razor friggin sharp . My choice for carry was and is still the Randall 14.

The Gurkhas are still very much operational, though moreso in the Indian and Pakistani military formations than in the scaled-back british, and there's a rumble going about that a Gurkha seconded to the SAS picked up a nomination for the VC in an incident involving the use of a kukri inside a cave in Afghanistan. They're scaled back among the Brits indeed, but seem to be happily absorbed as detatchments among the Irish Rifles and signals/transport regiment, among others. But yes, think British Gurkha companies and battalions now, rather than regiments.

I've got several khukuris, including the one I first got from them when involved with one of their *little projects* back in 1967. Interesting fellas: they treat sports like a war, and war like a sport. The last time I was out and about with them, the First Sergeant with us had his Randall 17 Astronaut/survival knife along, and the Gurkhas were very impressed with it, reckoning Randall-kami to be a pretty good blacksmith, and inquiring as to which village his forge was located in.

IMHO a few LP/OP 's strung out with thermal could call in blackhawks and use their GAU2B's on the pipeline sappers. The surgical precision of a "trained" sniper is a waste of assets IMHO when used in such a manner as this.

Strikes me as a great training exercise for those just out of the trade schools, though, with maybe one or two of the more experienced trigger techs around should something real interesting turn up, and to supervise.

Where the lines pass thru urban or built up areas.....yes. Across the desert........no. Just my opinion of course.

All generalities are untrue, and combat ops are sufficiently fluid as to change the equation anyway. The one thing that's reasonably certain is that if you don't change and develop your tactics as time goes on, your enemy will happily change his to defeat yours.

Stay Safe Archy !!............

That's not always entirely possible, of course, but it's a nice thought.

Gurka babes ??? they sure are Purdy !

Oh yes. But don't get them, their daddies or their brothers upset at you.

-archy-/-

[archy]

Those little radios are actually quite amazing ... built with surface mount components, they will run several days on 3 AA's ... with a 'special buy' in quantity they can be operating in another band quite easily, incorporate such features as 'power saver' for extended receive life, utilize UHF which is an ideal frequency urban areas (inside metal framed glass-enclosed vehicles like cars, HUMVEES) ... some are even water proof ... none of the old 'Jobcoms' or Wilsons were any of that ...

And drop nicely into a fatigue shirt or field jacket pocket, or can be speedtaped to the back of a K-pot. I don't expect it'd be too much of a stretch for one to be built into a plastic/synthetic sniper's rifle stock, either.

And if you need a second for backup should the first lose battery power at an inopportune time, or use the second to monitor your local unit push while in touch with Higher on another, a second radio in another pocket is no big deal, and provides a spare for another squaddie should theirs go down.

They're handy, but far from perfect. But sufficiently useful that their operational use in Bosnia was prohibited for use by the snuffies. After all, the brass had all the encrypted SINGCARS radios they needed in their vehicles, so who cares about the grunts going house-to-house.

The *Unwired Tech* Bill Dance model comes in OD green, is built with multiple waterproof gaskets, a waterproof plastic rather than paper speaker cone, and is reasonably weather-resistant if probably not exactly submersible, though marketed as a *fisherman's model* in which such an event might be reasonably expected to happen occasionally. I'm not sure if a GMRS frequency version is also available, but again, a second radio can go in another pocket [or modified first aid/compass pouch on the LBE] for covering those freqs.

The Garmin GMRS *Rino 120* waterproof model is similar, and includes GPS mapping features.

-archy-/-

[railsplitter]

for the close in work...shhh

[_Jim]

The Garmin GMRS *Rino 120* waterproof model is similar, and includes GPS mapping features.

The Garmin RINO 120 (and the RINO 110 both) feature a built-in GPS function that can *send* the GPS coordinates over the air and show up on the other's graphical screen!

US 150.00 on-line will get you the RINO 110 which doesn't allow local maps to be downloaed into the reveiver; but the 120, with 8 MB or RAM will allow 'theater' maps to be loaded ... and includes a cheap 'voice inversion' scrambler as well - for about US 100 more.

[Travis McGee]

That Simo must have had a pair of eyes on him!

[knighthawk]

A cool picture.

[archy]

That Simo must have had a pair of eyes on him!

He was known to wait until it got nighttime cold, not a long wait that far north on the Arctic Circle, wait for the Soviets to build warming fires, then shoot them by firelight. He killed a few, wounded others who bled out or froze to death, and likely caused even more casualties as frostbite took those who then avoided such fires.

And when they'd come after him, grenades and kp31 submachinegun fire made that idea costly as well. He was a hunter as well as a target shooter and expert marksman, and he hunted.

-archy-/-

[patton]

I used to love it when they would point at a BTR and call it an Abrahms...

[Ajnin]

I don't doubt at all what you say about the muzzle blast. What about the round itself though. In some airburst munitions a flammable vapor is spewed several feet above the ground and ignited. The subsequent explosion causes a vacuum in a large area. When the air rushes back in to fill the void I understand that the surrounding atmosphere decreases enough in psi to cause severe damage to a human. This happens primarily because of the speed of the explosion. I don't see how a projectile could cause the same effect unless I'm wrong in my understanding of overpressure.

[patton]

er, underpressure.

[Ciexyz]

Most cool!

[Ajnin]

perhaps negative pressure would be more apropriate.

[patton]

A giant sucking sound under any other name...