Canadian sniper in Iraq makes longest confirmed kill shot in military history- 3,450m

[Slick]

The Department of National Defence has confirmed that a Canadian sniper has broken the record for longest confirmed sniper shot in military history.

The soldier, a member of Canada’s elite Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) special forces unit deployed to Iraq, targeted and killed an Islamic State fighter in Mosul at a distance of almost three and a half kilometres.

“The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of the Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target from 3,540 metres,” the Department of National Defence confirmed in a statement to Global News.

“For operational security reasons and to preserve the safety of our personnel and our Coalition partners, we will not discuss precise details on when and how this incident took place.”

The extreme distance shot shatters the previous record of 2, 475 yards (2263 m) set by British Corporal Craig Harrison in Afghanistan in 2009. Canadian soldiers currently claim three of the top five longest confirmed shots ever recorded in the history of warfare.

DND officials stress that this engagement did not contravene the Canadian Forces mission in Iraq known as Operation Impact, which specifies a training and advisory – as opposed to frontline combat – role.

“The advice and assist tasks provided by the Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) remain consistent with those that have been provided since the start of Operation IMPACT,” The Department said in a statement to Global News. “The SOTF provides its expertise to Iraqi security force to detect, identify and defeat Daesh (ISIS) activities from well behind the Iraqi security force frontline in Mosul.”

“As stated multiple times in the past, members of the Canadian Special Operations Task Force do not accompany leading combat elements, but enable the Iraqi security forces who are in a tough combat mission.”

READ MORE: Canada’s anti-ISIS mission will be extended, confirms Harjit Sajjan

While DND officials cannot disclose specific details of JTF2 operations, a Canadian firearms and target shooting expert says the obstacles faced in making a shot at such extreme distance are varied, and all present a huge degree of difficulty.

“First of all, there is bullet drop due to gravity,” Tony Bernardo, Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association tells Global News. “And the bullet drop would be unbelievable. At just a thousand metres [the drop] is about 14 ft., and it increases exponentially as you move farther out.”

“The second factor is wind drift. Very small amounts of wind [can] make major drifts in the trajectory. A simple 10 mph breeze at [a distance of] 1000 m will make a difference of a few feet.”

At such extreme distance, the travel time for the bullet can be as long as ten seconds – meaning the shooter must account for the rotation of the Earth underneath the bullet as the shot travels.

Even an operator’s heartbeat can throw off his sight picture by a few millimetres – the difference of feet or metres once the bullet travels the intervening distance.

“When you’re sitting there at a shooting range with a rifle at 100 m, looking through a 14 or 15 [magnification] scope, you can actually see your heartbeat in the crosshairs because your body is translating it to the sight system,” Bernardo said. “And that’s only at 100 m, not 3500 m.”

Most sniper teams, including those of the Canadian Forces, operate in two-man units: one soldier acts as a spotter, with a laser range-finder and a hand-held computer, while the other soldier aims and fires the rifle at the target.

READ MORE: Funeral planned for Canadian killed fighting ISIS in Syria

In this case, the rifle was a McMillian Tac-50 – known as a C15 Long Range Sniper Weapon in Canadian military parlance – a .50 calibre bolt action rifle with a 5-round capacity, in service with the Canadian Forces since 2000.

“We arguably make the most accurate .50 calibre rifle there is,” Brian Clyde with McMillian Firearms Manufacturing tells Global News. He says the longest distance the company ever tested the weapon to was 3000 yards (2743 m) – the extreme range of the company testing facilities.

The fight to permanently cripple the so-called Islamic State will require at least another year of hard-fought battles in Iraq and Syria according to Brig.-Gen. Daniel MacIsaac, who assumed command of Operation Impact in March.

In an interview with Global News earlier this month, MacIsaac said he fully expects the Canadian mission to be extended beyond the current end-date of June 30, 2017.

“We’re foreseeing that soon, before that date, we’ll receive a new revised mandate,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll continue to be here after the 30th of June.”

Canadian warplanes with bombing capability were pulled out of the mission by the Liberal government in early 2016, but hundreds of Canadian men and women remain in place to assist with training, reconnaissance, medical operations and other support roles.

-With files from Monique Scotti

Canadian sniper in Iraq makes longest confirmed kill shot in military history - National | Globalnews.ca

[Slick]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMillan_Tac-50

[Slick]

The new record was set using a McMillan TAC-50, a .50-caliber weapon and the largest shoulder-fired firearm in existence.

Ryan Cleckner, a former U.S. Army Ranger sniper who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and wrote the authoritative “Long Range Shooting Handbook,” called the feat an “incredible” accomplishment, one that owes as much if not more to the spotter’s expertise than the shooter's skill.

“The spotter would have had to successfully calculate five factors: distance, wind, atmospheric conditions and the speed of the earth’s rotation at their latitude,” Cleckner told Fox News.

“Because wind speed and direction would vary over the two miles the bullet traveled, the true challenge here was being able to calculate the actual wind speed and direction all the way to the target.”

Atmospheric conditions also would have posed a huge challenge for the spotter.

“To get the atmospheric conditions just right, the spotter would have had to understand the temperature, humidity and barometric pressure of the air the round had to travel through.

Cleckner said that while the ammunition that Canadian special forces use in the TAC-50 is “off-the-charts powerful,” with some 13,000 foot-pounds of force when it comes out of the muzzle, the speed of a bullet, a 750-grain Hornady round, is not as important as the aerodynamic efficiency of the bullet.

“The key to having a sniper round travel that far and hit a small target has less to do with speed and more to do with the efficiency with which the projectile moves through the air,” he said.

That’s because while sniper bullets exit the muzzle at several times the speed of sound they eventually slow down to less than the speed of sound, and at that point they become less stable. An efficiently designed bullet reduces that instability, he explained.

Dennis Santiago, California-based firearms expert and instructor, said the partnership between the spotter and the shooter is critical.

"Equipment is just a starting point. The shooter on a military team will surely be skilled enough to hold hard on the 'aimpoint' and fire the shot accurately," he told Fox News. "The spotter member of the sniper team is responsible for telling the shooter the precise moment the atmospherics align with the calculations they've made. When it comes together, it's 'mission accomplished'."

Canadian sniper sets world record with 2.2-mile pickoff of ISIS fighter | Fox News

[Slick]

Really is a hell of a feat.

I don't even know what a target would look like at that distance. 2.2 Miles... Even the curve of the earth...

[chassamui]

Do you have a boner now Slack?

[Slick]

Yeah. Killshotchub earlier this morning. In the afterglow now.

[AntRobertson]

War porn.

[thaimeme]

War porn.

...and the continued romance and championing thereof.

[AntRobertson]

Every time I see something like this I'm reminded of the excellent doco 'War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death'.

It shows how the fawning media falls all over themselves to cover and oooh and ahhh over the latest and greatest military tech and hardware when they should be asking why 20-hundred-kabillion dollar laser-guided remote-operated javelin-thrown LHD ABS & Sat Nav missiles are being fired at some poor goat farming fucker instead, and therefore how they become complicit in this fetishising of death and destruction*.

Bit dated now but really is an excellent watch, can't recommend it enough.



*Edit: a more contemporary example is that stupid fuckwit who was quoting the late, great, Leonard Cohen "First We Take Manhattan" lyrics to praise Trump's airstrikes.

[VocalNeal]

I would rather Canada not publicize their participation or achievements. It just stirs the pot.

Oh...and it is 3540m

[Slick]

It shows how the fawning media falls all over themselves to cover and oooh and ahhh over the latest and greatest military tech and hardware when they should be asking why 20-hundred-kabillion dollar laser-guided remote-operated javelin-thrown LHD ABS & Sat Nav missiles are being fired at some poor goat farming fucker,

While I appreciate your feelz on the matter (I'm lying) - It was a single bullet fired from 2.2 miles away that blasted a full fledged rifle carrying enemy who aligns themselves with, as the Beeb likes to put it, "The so-called Islamic State". You know, those dudes that do all that bad stuff to people, like bombing children at a concert in Manchester & stuff.

Thats a win any way you slice it, from the Canadians & the Liberal Party to boot.

So, like, the opposite of what you're saying it reminds you of.

[Cold Pizza]

Interesting thread.

So many factors involved in a long shot like that.

[Slick]

Oh...and it is 3540m

Whooops. I fixed it.

[baldrick]

USA USA USA USA ..... oh wait

[NZdick1983]

Awesome shot! bravo... BB would be proud heh...

[AntRobertson]

It was a single bullet fired from 2.2 miles away that blasted a full fledged rifle carrying enemy who aligns themselves with, as the Beeb likes to put it, "The so-called Islamic State". You know, those dudes that do all that bad stuff to people, like bombing children at a concert in Manchester & stuff.

You do realise that it's things exactly like this single bullet you're frotting yourself over (and missiles, drone-strikes etc. etc.) that empower those dudes that do all that bad stuff, right?

'We' bomb their children, 'They' bomb ours, rinse & repeat.

So, like, the opposite of what you're saying it reminds you of.

Errm, no.

Incidentally (and coincidentally enough), “First We Take Manhattan" as well as being just an awesome song is actually about terrorism, but not from the perspective that it was quoted from by that aforementioned fuckwit (whose name still escapes me).

[Slick]

You do realise that it's things exactly like this single bullet you're frotting yourself over (and missiles, drone-strikes etc. etc.) that empower those dudes that do all that bad stuff, right?

Oh my, lets pack it in then.

'We' bomb their children, 'They' bomb ours, rinse & repeat.

There were no bombs, just a single 750 grain .50 round.

Incidentally (and coincidentally enough), “First We Take Manhattan" as well as being just an awesome song is actually about terrorism, but not from the perspective that it was quoted from by that aforementioned fuckwit (whose name still escapes me).

No idea how the fuck you got way out here.

[AntRobertson]

There were no bombs, just a single 750 grain .50 round.

The Point - - - - - - - - - - - - > You, over here, being all arbitrarily narrow and stuff.

No idea how the fuck you got way out here.

Yeah, apparently you don't read posts so good.

[fred flintstone]

10 second travel time. Pretty amazing.

[Begbie]

The morality or otherwise aside, surely there's a computerized gun that can take these type of shots without the interference of a human operator.

[chassamui]

The mad skills of the sniper and his spotter are frankly beyond reproach. Easy to remain detached from the kill at that distance.

Make it an olympic sport. The 4km, kill a baddie gold medal goes to ..........

If the baddie is really nasty, just throw him in a cell with Bubba. The 2014 Gold medallist for coke smuggling.

[kmart]

It shows how the fawning media falls all over themselves to cover and oooh and ahhh over the latest and greatest military tech and hardware when they should be asking why 20-hundred-kabillion dollar laser-guided remote-operated javelin-thrown LHD ABS & Sat Nav missiles are being fired at some poor goat farming fucker,

While I appreciate your feelz on the matter (I'm lying) - It was a single bullet fired from 2.2 miles away that blasted a full fledged rifle carrying enemy who aligns themselves with, as the Beeb likes to put it, "The so-called Islamic State". You know, those dudes that do all that bad stuff to people, like bombing children at a concert in Manchester & stuff.

.

The same people we also arm and train to fight anyone against our supposed economic interests in the ME and beyond? *golf clap*

[BaitongBoy]

Awesome shot! bravo... BB would be proud heh...

I hit a lake from the top of a small mountain, once...Took about 5 seconds before the splash...

[Seekingasylum]

10 second travel time. Pretty amazing.

Indeed, truly amazing but of course the ISIL commander and his witnesses have confirmed the kill, further supported by a qualified pathologist and an international forensics team which examined the bullet and confirmed it was a munition which matches the bore of the weapon allegedly used which the Canadian authorities kindly submitted for examination, and has been in touch with the Guinness Book of Records who will send a team to verify the kill on scrutiny of the aforesaid evidence.

That the story is entirely fabricated as a propaganda disinformation measure undermining the morale of the ISIL fighters in Mosul, literally forcing them to keep their heads down, is of course completely untrue.

[Minty]

Charge him with murder.