Intelligence and Terrorism News
DARPA to neutralise sniper fire
By Stevie Smith Apr 30, 2007, 14:10 GMT
With modern urban warfare providing countless unseen havens for deadly snipers the U.S. Defense Department’s advanced research division is hoping to dramatically cut down deaths of coalition troops in the Middle East with the introduction of it’s C-Sniper system.
Developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects), the C-Sniper system is being lauded as an effective way to locate and neutralise snipers, and not only by triangulating their positioning after they’ve opened fire but actually before they are able to launch their stealthy attacks. Perhaps naturally, especially considering the nature of the technology and its potential effects on the battlefield, DARPA provides scant little information concerning the operation of its C-Sniper system, although it’s not the first or only sniper location application open for use.
For example, according to a related Wired report, the Air Force Research Laboratory has a counter sniper system known as BOSS (Battlefield Optical Surveillance System), which is allegedly built on laser location technology. And, San Diego-based Torrey Pines Logic Inc. is also developing its own sniper detection system, which is called the Mirage 1200. The Mirage is a portable binocular-style piece of field equipment that utilises (safe to the human eye) pulsed lasers in order to locate the long-range scopes on sniper rifles.
DARPA claims its C-Sniper system will be capable of the “detection and neutralization of enemy snipers” in either daylight or night time conditions while delivering the system’s operator with data with which to track (and destroy) said target thanks to C-Sniper’s related weaponry. And, although development details are few and far between, DARPA believes that its C-Sniper system will arrive as a markedly more evolved option when placed alongside the likes of BOSS and Mirage 1200 thanks to the proposed integration with its existing Boomerang gunshot-locator device.
The Boomerang system relies on a cluster of seven directional microphones that register a passing bullet’s shockwave at marginally different times, allowing the system to track and locate the position of the firing weapon. While the initial feedback provided by the system delivers a general directional location to troops in the vehicle that houses Boomerang, it also provides GPS positioning as well as target range and elevation.
“We’re now accurate way beyond 500 meters,” comments Dave Schmitt, Boomerang’s program manager at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Older Talkback
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On this page with articles about the Middle East and all its connotations of terror and torture I was confronted with an advert for 'Hostel Part 2'. I did not deliberately click on the advert, as I do not wish more confrontation with such imagery than what's presented to me in the news bulletins. It jumped at me simply because I moused over it while moving around the page. I find it sick to be harassed uninvited by these terrifying sounds and images, meant as 'enterntainment'. Can't you be a bit more judicious, please?
Appreciate what you have to say in your post.
Our Admin. seems to have consistently underplayed the intellegence and tactics of the enemy - likely our own egos at work, seeing ourselves as an unmatchable military power in a conventional-type war such as 1991. The rules of the game have changed, but our military tacticians seem a good generation behind.
The Peshmerga have done a fine job in the North, but now the Turkish reaction to the Kurds indicates that a 'hot war' might break out near the border. Since U.S. policy towards Iraq as a while banks on Kurdish sentiment and strength, I am concerned with the situation with Turkey. Turkey made some threats a day back about lessening U.S. alliances - likely more a call for attention than anything else.
What's below is from the Brookings Iraq Index of 07-30, which O'Hanlon (who co-authored that controversial rosy-scenario article with Pollack in the Times) is in charge of at Brookings. This was released after their Iraq visit, but the tone is nowhere as optimistic.
www3.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf
(See charts Pages 48 on)
How are things going in Iraq overall?
66% overall bad
Shia - 50% bad
Sunni - 95% bad
Kurd - 43% bad
Support for presence of coalition forces?
78% overall oppose
83% Shia oppose
97% Sunni oppose
25% Kurdish oppose
(This is AFTER the surge and cooperation with the Sunni)
Approval of al-Maliki's job?
Shia 67% approve
Sunni 3% approve
Kurd 60% approve
(Hence, the split support for the government in Baghdad)
The writeup is on Page 4 of the PDF - note the last (summation) paragraph. 'Signs of battlefield momentum in favor of U.S./Coalition military forces, but there is nonetheless little good to report on the political front and only modest progress on the economic side of things'.
I have a nearly fool-proof anti-sniper system. The Miyagi 1980 series. It's based on a proven theory, that the best way to avoid taking a bullet is to 'not be there'.
It's powered by the user's ability to distinguish right from wrong and is *particularly* effective in the War Against the People of Iraq.
If they are capable of making such a distinction, they will find that they will simply 'not be there' when the bullet arrives.
In fact, the Miyagi 1980 series takes it a step further - by causing the would-be sniper to not even take the shot in the first place. By removing the target from the country altogether, the shooter has no reason to even try the shot.
But wait! There's more! Sure - it keeps decent right-thinking folks from being shot, but what about terrorists and other criminals? This is where the Miyagi really shines.
Criminals enjoy NO protection from this defensive system - because it is completely inoperable when used by a beligerant force against a civilian population. The criminals and terrorists, unable to distinguish right from wrong, will find that they are right where they belong - in the cross-hairs.
Sanders Kaufman, I am sure the folks who died in the world trade towers appreciate your strenth of will to defend democracy and oppose terror and despotism, protect the free and innocent and attack the enemy at every opportunity. . . oh yeh, you just don't want to be there . . . good luck in your ostrich hole.
It's a real shame that Bush's NeoChristian followers keep blaming 9/11 on the Iraqi people.
It takes a perosn like Judah Ben-Hur and others to finally stand up and make a change. You are so afraid of losing what little you have that you are willing to let your government and business control your every move. While the troops are in Iraq, the real war is brewing right here in America. The American Republic will be the newe government of North America because it has to be, just like the current system has to be. There are no natural laws of nature that defines our lifestyle under the current rule! We just decided to change the rules like every one else does everyday.
NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to aid of their country!
We are not afraid of the TRUTH, are You?
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MikeTuckerCounter-TerrorismSpecialistMay 7th, 2007 - 13:39:54
I've seen action in 21 months in Iraq with US Army Special Forces, Delta Force, Marine scout/snipers, US Army snipers, US Army paratroopers, Kurdish counter-terrorists and Kurdish peshmerga and my name is Mike Tucker.
We lost over ten Marines in Fallujah in an eight week period to Al Qaeda and Black Flags Brigades terrorist and insurgent snipers, between November 15 2005 and January 15 2006. This technological answer to locating and killing enemy snipers is entirely dependent on the enemy sniper firing from a static hide.
Even if you can nail down his position, he's not going to sit in a static hide after he takes the shot. But that's assuming he'd fire from a static hide, in the first place. Most enemy snipers are mobile, in trucks, vans, ambulances, sedans, and taxis. Never assume. Many of our friendly killed in action and wounded in action from enemy sniper fire in Iraq have been shot at from mobile enemy sniper hides: for instance, terrorist snipers routinely lay in the trunks of modified sedans and taxis, with a hole cut out on one side. Behind the wheel, the driver communicates with the enemy sniper on a cell phone, and the driver acts as a spotter for the enemy sniper. Shot out, an American or Coalition warrior is killed or wounded, and it is instant chaos, havoc and terror. How do you stop that from happening? With solid human intelligence: penetrate the terrorist cells, as the Kurds do. The Kurds have taken zero friendly killed in action from Al Qaeda snipers, unlike the US Marine Corps, the US Army and the Iraqi Army. Why? The Kurds do it the low-tech, even no-tech way: speak Arabic, get inside the mosques, penetrate the cells, take down the financeers, and kill the enemy. The Kurds understand something that all the money in the world can't buy you, the knowledge that knowing the turf, language, and culture is paramount in counter-sniper warfare. Notice that Kurdish counter-terrorists don't seek out advice from the Pentagon and the US military-industrial-academic complex. Because they don't need to, and they know the worthlessness of a technological solution to a human intelligence problem.
Mike Tucker. Counter-Terrorism Specialist, Poet and Author.
RONIN: A Marine Scout/Sniper Platoon in Iraq, will be published
by Stackpole Books in April 2008.
Far East. Monday, May 7, 2007.
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