Re: sniper weapons for SGII

This might be a repost, not sure if the other one got through.
LONG war story follws to explain use of heavy sniper rifles in real
world...

These "heavy" sniper rifles are used by Special Operations forces to
take out pieces of important equipment. Let me give you an example
(which we actually did _in training_). Let's say you are directed to
eliminate a power grid for 48 hours in a certain region of a target
area. Your ODA (US A detachment from SF) has been tasked with the job.
They don't want the thing utterly demolished they just need to take down
power in this specific region for a short period of time. (Maybe they
want to bring the grid back on line after the areas has been secured.)
You have 12 guys, this place is defended by more than a platoon and it's
40 kilometers behind enemy lines.

In the planning phase, while planning actions at the objective you
basically are focussing on two things. What is the vulnerability of the
target (the team enginer does this through a matrix he puts together)
and what is the best way of attacking it. Now sure everyone has seen all
the "realistic" flicks like Navy Seals, GI Jane, Rambo, whatever. SO
natuarlly the logical thing is to sneak in there at night , slit a  few
throats and plant some demo right?

Why bother? The engineer has already identified the critical component
of this facility is a steel encased doohicky the size of a refrigerator
and look here it is on target imagery. Destroying this peice will take
the whole site down for at least 48 hours or maybe more due to the
criticality of the component and how long it takes to truck another one
out from East Jabru. The engineer assesses that this thing can be taken
out with a .50 cal slug if you it it right here. (He's looking at his
how to kill any piece of equipment book.)

SO analysing all the factors, terrain, and enemy defenzse, you decied
that the safest, most efficient, and stealthy way to kill this thing is
to take it out with a .50 cal sniper rigfle fired from a covered
position 500 meters from the site up on a ridge. A normal M24 (7.62mm
standard sniper rifle) won't guarantee the job will be done so you take
the heavy stuff. You go there, punch a big holein the thing, and power
is down.

That's why you use the heavy sniper rifle. 90% of the time it's for
taking out equipment, not people, and certainly not tanks. At least
nowadays. 300 years from now, who knows?

Los