This Looks Like A Fortified Sniper’s Nest At The Super Bowl

Deadspin

Some photos with no backstory are making the rounds, showing what appears to be an Indianapolis police sniper checking out his post in the rafters of Lucas Oil Stadium in the hours or days before the Super Bowl, a post that would be manned when the game began. Yes, we know there's nothing surprising about trained marksmen working the biggest sporting event of the year. We also know it's pretty damn cool to see what the Super Bowl snipers are working with.

It's standard operating procedure to have an invisible law enforcement presence at any high-profile event, let alone one with the attendance and attention the Super Bowl receives. And remember, there are all kinds of politicians and other assorted rich people around. You never know what could happen, though the imagination conjures up increasingly insane and horrifying scenarios, and also the criminally underrated Black Sunday. It's just never a bad idea to have a sniper rifle around...[Full Article]

New rifles give Army snipers in Afghanistan needed range

USAToday.com

The Army is shipping powerful new rifles to its snipers in Afghanistan to kill insurgents who are firing from greater distances and shooting at troops more frequently than in the early years of the war.

The XM2010 sniper rifle can hit a target 3,937 feet away, which is a quarter-mile farther than the current Army sniper rifle shoots.

The added distance is important because insurgents have been shooting down from ridges and mountaintops where gravity helps their bullets travel farther and beyond the range of Army snipers...

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Sniper in Afghan Town Puts Marines on Edge

SANGIN, Afghanistan—Somewhere in this dusty town, concealed among the cornfields, irrigation canals and mud-walled compounds, is a man the Marines particularly want to kill.

They don't know what he looks like. But they know he is a very good shot with a long rifle, and, every day he remains alive, he is drawing Marine blood.

In the seven days since the men of Lima Company, Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment arrived in town, the Sangin sniper has persecuted them with methodical, well-aimed shots, fired one at a time. His toll so far: two men killed—one American and one British—and one man wounded...

[Full Article]

Sniper Targets Oakland Cops

Oakland police have their hands full. In addition to a shootout on the freeway and a police-involved shooting at a BART station, officers are now on the hunt for an apparent sniper trying to take out officers.

"They hear gunshots and can feel the bullets pass by them," police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason said. "They can hear them whizzing by."

The latest incident happened Sunday at about 11:30 p.m. Patrol officers were on a traffic stop near 8th and Adeline Streets in West Oakland when they heard shots. They were detaining people in a car on suspicion of drug-related offenses.

The officers had to get out of the line of fire and get the detainees out of the line of fire. They called for back up...

[Full Article]

AZ Cops Threatened by Drug Cartel Snipers at Border

DARPA's Super Sniper Scope In Shooters' Hands By 2011

Earlier this month, a British Army sniper Corporal Craig Harrison broke the world’s record for super-accurate shooting, taking out a pair of Taliban machine gunners from a mile-and-a-half away. It was a one-in-a-million feat — one performed under “perfect” conditions, Harrison says: “no wind, mild weather, clear visibility.”

Darpa, the Pentagon’s way-out research arm, is hoping to use lasers and advanced optical systems to make other snipers Harrison-accurate, even when the winds are howling. The agency is looking for 15 ultra-precise sniper scopes to put in shooters’ hands by next year.

The “One Shot” program originally aimed to give snipers the power to hit a target from 2000 meters away in winds as high as 40 miles per hour. In the first phases of the three year-old program, shooters used prototype rifles dressed with lasers and fancy computer hardware to do damage from 1100 meters away in 18 mile-an-hour winds. The scope-mounted lasers can “see” wind turbulence in the path of the bullet and feed the data to computers, enabling real-time calculation of – and compensation for – the wind-blown trajectory.

The program is just one of several high-tech hardware upgrades the U.S. military is pursuing for its snipers. Plans are also in place to make bullets that can change course in mid-air and a stealth sniper scope that would make shooters all-but-invisible...

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/05/darpa-wants-super-sniper-rifles-in-shooters-hands-by-2011/#ixzz0oy3NEPY4