The global sniper competition "Finnsniper 24" was held in Lohtaja, Finland on 5-7 July this year. 3 soldiers from OT Brigades participated at the invitation of the Finnish Armed Forces: 5 Mazowiecka, 4 Warmian-Masurian and 10 Świętokrzyska.
More than 60 players from Poland, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Germany participated in the three-day sniper competition. The fast pace was imposed at the very beginning. We failed to unpack, and immediately we had to mask the weapons, equipment, faces, hands, and put on the masking clothes that we could remove after the competition ended. “St. Daniel of the 5th Mazovia Territorial Defence Brigade said.
The rivalry was joined by three-man teams in the sniper squad (with SAKO 338 LM selection rifle), an observer (SAKO 308 WIN selection carbine) and a squad leader (MSBS GROT 5.56). On the first day, soldiers faced 3 challenges: shooting in the time government 5 minutes at a distance of 100 m to different targets in the size of 2 to 4 cm placed on the A4 card. In the second competition, soldiers fired at 10 cm metallic targets at distances of 70 to 150 m. To our surprise, we had to execute a task on the organizer's weapon in a calibre of 22 LR with which we had no contact so far. – added Mr Daniel of 5 MBOT.
The last task of that day was to rapidly decision to a 30 metre reflection tower and give precise synchronous shots.
On the second day of the competition in the demanding Finnish areas snipers proved themselves during the tactical loop. It consisted of 8 different tasks, including: detection of targets by thermalisation, getting out of an ambush and providing assistance to injured people in accordance with the MARCHE protocol, penetration into fire stations utilizing trenches, while at the same time firing targets at 100-900 meters.
- I'm sorry. At 1 of the tactical loop points, the team's leader was respective twelve metres distant from the remainder of the team. Without seeing the forefield, he must have decently targeted us. In the next task after crawling into the building, we had to destruct the targets located at a distance of 100–600 metres in conditions of limited visibility (by heavy darkening goggles), without the anticipation of making adjustments on the telescope. The last point was to make 2 reports in the NATO strategy – MEDEVAC (a wounded man from the battlefield) and UXO (finding an explosion). The diversity of tasks prepared by the competition organizers required the full squad to be full focused, accurate and reliable in communication. all small item was evaluated. “A soldier of the Ciechanian brigade has spouted.”
On the last day of the evaluation, shots were fired at emerging targets deployed at distances from 300 to 1500 metres in the time government of 2 minutes. 21 teams from Europe participated in the competition. We took 16th place, but the first of the non-Finland soldiers to win these competitions all year. This is simply a large success for us and a valuable lesson. – stressed Capt. Casper of 10 WBOT, squad leader.
These projects, in addition to programme training and excellence courses, are an crucial component in raising the skills of soldiers through competition. They let you to check the level of sniper training, as well as a unique chance to gather experience and observe techniques utilized by shooters from another countries.
Text: krp. Elżbieta Obrębska/ 5 MBOT
