Snipers gather at Waiouru

Ruapehu Bulletin, 1 December 1992, Page 5

Snipers gather at Waiouru

By Jan Savell Eighteen top snipers from the New Zealand Police and the armies of Australia, New Zealand and Britain (Gurkhas) gathered in Waiouru for 14 days of training recently. Operation Long Shot, the Sniper Concentration, is the first of its kind for New Zealand. The exercise allows snipers and sniper supervisors to get together and exchange ideas in a training environment. A variety of scenarios are used to make the exercise as comprehensive and realistic as possible within safety limits.

When the Army's highest ranking officer, Chief of General Staff, Major General Tony Birks, visited the course he had the opportunity to try out the safety limits for himself - holding the target! The margin of lm over a distance of 200m thankfully proved adequate. "The concentration is a learning exercise," said Sgt Phil Harris, a sniper^ instructor with the small^ arms wing of the School of Infantry. For the 12 sniper supervisors it has been an opportunity to learn about overseas training methods. The work of a sniper requires a broad range of skills and this concentration covers stalking, concealment, observation, judging distance, reporting and recording and physical fitness, in addition to shooting. For a soldier to become a sniper they must first be identified as a marksman but, even with this skill, few pass on the sniping course. "Shooting isn't as important as observation," Sgt Harris said. "Shooting is perhaps 10 per cent of a sniper's work." Army snipers

tend to be young; between 22 and 28 years old. Although using the same marksmanship skills as their counterparts in the police, their training is different because of the environments they work in.

"Police move around the towns more. They are working among the public. Our snipers train for conventional warfare," Sgt Harris explained.