• One Quora user once asked the world what service he should join if he wanted to be a sniper. 
• And one Marine veteran gave the young asker a rather grueling exercise to try out. 
• The exercise included laying in and crawling through a swamp on a hot, sunny day, with little food and water. 

Quora is the ultimate resource for crowdsourcing knowledge. If you're unfamiliar, you ask the Quora world a question and anyone with expertise (and some without it) will respond. One user asked the world what service he should join if he wanted to be a sniper. One Marine veteran gave him some necessary information.

Choosing what branch to join can be tough for anyone. Different branches have different lifestyles, they come with different job opportunities, and they each have their own difficulties. If you're 100-percent sure you want to be a sniper, that doesn't narrow your selection. At all.

SEE ALSO: The NRA helped promote this deadly Russian sniper rifle that has the US military worried

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Marines are already getting their hands on the deadly new Mk13 sniper rifle, just months after the Corps announced it was finally replacing the Vietnam War era M40 rifle.

The new Mk 13 Mod 7 sniper rifle is now finding its way into the inventories of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force as of the week of Sept. 17, according to Barbara Hamby, a spokeswoman with Marine Corps Systems Command.

“Based on the approved fielding plan, the MK13 Mod 7 is being fielded to units to include infantry and reconnaissance battalions and scout sniper schoolhouses,” Hamby said in an emailed statement to Marine Corps Times.

The new .300 Winchester Magnum, or Win Mag round, sniper rifle is a big improvement over its predecessor the M40A6 and boasts the ability to hit targets with precision at more than 1,000 yards.

Snipers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have long complained of the need to hit targets beyond the range of the M40.

After the Corps identified a capability gap in the max effective range of its sniper rifle it set out to test and evaluate potential suitable replacements.

The Mk13 Mod 7, which is already the primary sniper rifle of the Marine Raiders, was eventually selected and announced by Corps officials this spring.

The Corps says the new Mk 13 will increase the range of scout snipers by roughly 300 meters. Snipers in the community are also excited about the heavier grain .300 Win Mag round.

"The .300 Winchester Magnum round will perform better than the current 7.62 NATO ammo in flight, increasing the Marine Sniper's first round probability of hit,” Chief Warrant Officer 3 Tony Palzkill, Battalion Gunner for Infantry Training Battalion, said in a command release. “This upgrade is an incredible win and will allow snipers to engage targets at greater distances."

While Marines have carried some version of the M40 since 1966, it’s still going to remain in the Corps’ schoolhouses and operational forces for training.

The new Mk 13 Mod 7 is also equipped with a very powerful day optic known as the Nightforce Advanced Tactical Riflescope.

The new scope uses the Tremor3 reticle, which allows a user to rapidly gauge windage options and rapidly acquire and engage multiple targets at far distances.

“The new day optic allows for positive identification of enemies at greater distances, and it has a grid-style reticle that allows for rapid re-engagement without having to dial adjustments or ‘hold’ without a reference point,” Sgt. Randy Robles, Quantico Scout Sniper School instructor, said in a command release. “With this type of weapon in the fleet, we will increase our lethality and be able to conceal our location because we are creating a buffer between us and the enemy.”

Fielding of the Mk 13 will continue through 2019, to units at II MEF and III MEF, according to Hamby.

SEE ALSO: Take a look at the grimy and grueling training the Army uses to turn soldiers into snipers

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NOW WATCH: Former Navy SEAL sniper reveals how staying focused is the key to success

A legendary Marine Corps sniper who earned the Silver Star during the first battle of Fallujah, Iraq, has a warning for the Corps: Snipers are integral to the urban battle and the Marine Corps needs to adequately address its shortage of deadly marksmen.

Ethan Place was a corporal in April 2004 when he found himself perched as a sniper on a rooftop in Fallujah, staring through scope of his M40A3 rifle and scanning the long urban alleys of the Iraqi city looking for insurgents seeking to harm his fellow Marines clearing the city below.

“Urban terrain for snipers is a dream world for shooting positions and angles, the ability to hide and move,” Place told Marine Corps Times in an interview.

As Marines clawed their way through the city street by street and house to house, ­snipers like Place provided overwatch from above, pushing enemy insurgents further and further away from their comrades with long range precision fires.

“We were able to push the enemy ­completely back and also limit their range and their movement as well,” Place said. “They didn’t understand how far we could shoot.”

And while insurgents were kept at bay by precision shots, Marine snipers had freedom of movement on Fallujah’s rooftops, knocking out loopholes, or moving through connected houses and blown holes in the walls of the tightly connected old city.

For snipers and their spotters, it was “very easy to move back and forth,” Place said. We’d “shoot from one hide and move to another.”

The first battle for Fallujah, known as ­Operation Vigilant Resolve, would earn Place the nation’s third highest award for combat bravery. He would leave Iraq with 32 confirmed kills as a scout sniper with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines.

The lessons learned from the Corps’ fight in Fallujah have not been lost.

But the Corps is reeling from a shortage of its professional marksmen — and it’s one that could impact the Corps’ ability to fight and navigate in future dense urban environments.

Manning its mission

High attrition rates and poor attendance numbers at the Corps’ 79-day Scout Sniper Basic Course is challenging the Corps to keep its sniper platoons adequately manned to carry out its mission.

From 2013 to June 2018 the Corps only has managed to pop out 226 snipers.

In 2017 only 42 students attended the sniper course and as of June 2018 only 77 Marines have attended. The numbers are below the nearly 100 Marines averaged in previous years back to 2013. Marine Corps Times does not have the final 2018 ­attendance numbers.

And the 14 sniper graduates as of June 2018 is on track to be one of the lowest numbers of snipers to successfully navigate the rigorous course since 22 graduated in 2017. Only 29 made it through in 2014.

The Corps typically has 300 scout snipers, Caylen Wojcik, a former Marine sniper who left the Corps in 2005, told Marine Corps Times.

But, the Corps says it only has 150 sergeants and below holding the coveted 0317 scout sniper job field.

“The advanced decision-making, infantry and marksmanship skills necessary to attain this qualification make the Marine Scout Sniper Course one of the most ­challenging schools in the Marine Corps,” Capt. ­Karoline Foote, a Marine spokeswoman, told Marine Corps Times.

However, the Corps argues that it has “­sufficient inventory of scout snipers to consistently meet its operational requirements and accomplish its mission,” Foote added.

While the Corps has “sufficient inventory” to meet today’s operational requirements, the Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller recently rejected a proposal to grow the Corps’ sniper platoons by eight Marines.

That recommendation was borne out of a series of experimental exercises known as Sea Dragon, which tested infantry Marines with new kit and various squad configurations in an effort to help modernize the force.

The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory recommended to Neller that the sniper platoons should grow based on lessons learned from recent major urban fights overseas.

A sniper’s ability to navigate across complex urban and human terrain was highlighted in recent major urban fights like Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, as partner forces cleared the urban strongholds from ISIS militants.

In the fight to liberate to Mosul, ISIS snipers bogged down Iraqi fighters, slowing down the assault to liberate the city from the militants, with persistent harassing sniper fire, according to Alexander Mello, a researcher who ­co-authored a study on the defense of the city for the Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel at West Point.

Sometimes it was “one or two snipers holding up the advance of an entire column,” Mello said.

With limited counter-sniper capability, “You’d get a bunch of airstrikes to take out one guy in a single building,” leading to far greater destruction of the city and added risk of civilian casualties, Mello said.

That also aided ISIS in its ability to control information operations and push propaganda efforts during the siege of the populous urban stronghold.

ISIS snipers also enjoyed freedom of movement, traveling between holes in the walls of connected houses.

Those skill sets will be key for the Corps as it faces down the growing possibility of a major urban engagement in a future bout with peer and near-peer rivals.

Neller has said his decision to not grow the sniper ­platoons was one of “quality over quantity.”

“My concern is I’d rather have eight really good highly qualified snipers,” Neller said at a media roundtable event in October. “Our ability to try and get people through that training curriculum is always a challenge.”

However, the top Marine said that infantry ­Marines will continue to have long range precision fires ­embedded in every squad. A Marine carrying the M38 rifle, a designated marksmen version of the M27 IAR, will bear that responsibility.

But undermanning in the sniper platoons has been a consistent theme, Place said.

When Place was serving, he said there were usually 10 hogs, hunters of gunmen, per platoon. But he said that he’s heard grumblings that those numbers are as low as one to two hogs per platoon.

Sniper platoons generally consist of hogs, snipers who have been through the formal training, and pigs, professionally instructed gunmen who are still ­undergoing on-the-job training.

The right ratio between the two is key to ensuring proper training and the ability for the platoons to maintain their craft. With few hogs in the platoon, it is difficult to properly train.

“The Marine Corps’ goal is for each infantry ­battalion to deploy with at least six scout snipers,” Foote said. “Individual battalions are responsible for the management and the employment of their ­respective 0317 inventories.”

Some of the issues in the sniper community could be cleared up by turning the sniper field into a primary military occupational specialty, or MOS. It’s currently an additional MOS, Place said.

A primary job field for the sniper community would help formalize training, a career track and ensure the field is adequately funded, he said. Other snipers in the community have echoed that concern with Marine Corps Times.

The Corps says it has reviewed that option.

“The Marine Corps has recently considered designating the scout sniper MOS as an entry-level PMOS and determined that retaining it under the current model as a BMOS is the best option at this time for meeting manpower and billet requirements for this important skill set,” Foote said.

The Corps says it routinely reviews training and curriculum at the sniper school house and changes in sniper training could be made if new ­operational demands are made or changes in concepts of ­employment occur.

SEE ALSO: Take a look at the grimy and grueling training the Army uses to turn soldiers into snipers

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FT. LAUDERDALE, Florida — Once the Coast Guard has a suspect vessel in its sights on the high seas, there's usually nowhere for it to go, but getting it to stop isn't always easy.

The crew of the Coast Guard cutter James returned to Florida last week with nearly 38,000 pounds of cocaine seized by it and other Coast Guard ships in the Pacific. Stacked on some of the bales of cocaine were clear signs of the Coast Guard's precision.

"So what you see here are some engine cowlings," said Capt. Jeffrey Randall, commander of the James, referring to the half-dozen plastic covers perched on bales of seized drugs like trophies.

"We pair up the capabilities of the ship, the sensors of the ship, with our helicopter detachment that's back there," he said, referring to the helicopter parked behind the crew on the James' aft deck.

"That helicopter has what we call an aerial-use-of-force capability. So we can shoot from the aircraft with precision marksman fire, and we direct it at the engines of the vessel to stop the vessels when they fail to heave to."

SEE ALSO: Billions of dollars of cocaine are smuggled into the US by sea every year, and the Coast Guard says it can only stop one-quarter of it

Precision fire is a central part of the Coast Guard's operations, whether it's on the open ocean or in US ports and waterways.

Though their area of operation is the sea, Coast Guard marksmen do train on land.

"We conduct training on the flat range weekly, do various range and yard lines, concentrating mostly on snaps and movers," a Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team member told Military.com, referring to targets that appear suddenly and change position. "Because that's where your bread and butter is. I mean, shooting moving targets is it."

"The relationship between the shooter and the spotter is extremely important. The spotter's job is probably the hardest He's evaluating the factors with the wind," the MRST member said. "The spotters responsibility is to actually see what the wind is doing and give the shooter the correct information so that he can make that accurate shot."

• In 2013, a British 20-year-old Lance Corporal with the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards killed six Taliban insurgents with one shot.
• He hit one of their suicide vests, and it blew all of them up.
• The British military has kept his identity classified, but it's possible he's now protecting the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Snipers live by the mantra of "one shot, one kill." Whenever they find themselves in combat, they must remain true to this law. They can take whatever time they need to calculate all the variables, but they have to make it count. That single shot must land exactly where it needs to be, and a sniper needs to get the heck out of dodge as soon as possible.

But in some cases, one shot means more than one kill. Such was the case with an unidentified Lance Corporal in the British Army who stopped a massive assault by Taliban insurgents all by himself, with one perfectly placed bullet.

Not much is known about the sniper, as the British military has kept his identity classified for safety concerns. What is known, however, is that he was a 20-year-old Lance Corporal with the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards.

This Lance Corporal must have made a name for himself within his unit because he was handed the bolt-action L115A3 AWM .338-caliber sniper rifle early on in his career. Another story about him says that his very first shot fired in combat went directly into the chest of a Taliban machine gunner from 1,465 yards away.

His skill with a sniper rifle is unquestionable — so don't go calling his amazing shot a matter of luck.

Read more: Modern body armor was created by a pizza delivery guy who was tired of getting shot at

On a cold December morning in 2013, somewhere in Helmund Province, Afghanistan, the Coldstream Guards were out on a routine patrol when this unknown sniper spotted a large group approaching their location, so he radioed in their suspicious activity. There was about to be a massive assault by the Taliban. It wasn't long before the group pulled out their weapons and opened fire in the direction of the British forces.

The distant end on the radio gave him the all-clear to engage all hostile forces, and he quickly calculated his shot. The Taliban insurgents were peeking from outside of a rock, but he couldn't get the right angle. Six of the insurgents made their way into a ditch, and everything was perfect for the Lance Corporal. From 930 yards away, he fired directly into the chest of the terrorist in the middle... And boom!

A massive explosion detonated inside the ditch. The round penetrated a suicide vest that was said to have 44 lbs of explosives, and the round prematurely detonated the vest, in what could have been a devastating attack on the Brits. It's unknown what substance was in the vest.

The fighting ended immediately, and the remaining Taliban forces dispersed like cockroaches in the light. When everything went quiet, he was also said to have gotten on the radio and awkwardly said "I... I... think I've just shot a suicide bomber."

His single shot saved the lives of countless British soldiers that day. The identity of this heroic badass is still unknown and, frankly, may never be revealed. As he was a member of the Coldstream Guard, it wouldn't be uncommon for him to have rotated back to England and pulling guard duty at Buckingham Palace. A skilled marksman like him is perfectly suited to protect Queen Elizabeth II.

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• For the first time in history, a female Marine officer is on track to someday lead sniper or recon Marines on the battlefield.
• A female ground intelligence officer graduated from Scout Sniper Unit Leaders Course in July.
• The three-week course prepares junior officer and noncommissioned officers to lead Marine snipers.
• Her graduation marks another step in progress towards the integration of women into combat-related positions.

A female Marine officer has graduated from the Scout Sniper Unit Leaders Course and is on track to become a future recon or sniper platoon commander.

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• Snipers typically operate at ranges between 600 and 1,200 meters, but it's possible to take an enemy out from much farther away.
• Every long-range shot consists of countless calculations and considerations to overcome the influence of factors like temperature, weather, wind, and so on to ensure the bullet strikes the intended target.
• "There are a million things that go into being a sniper, and you have to be good at all of them," a US Army sniper told Business Insider.

Hidden, the sniper peers through his scope. Watching from the shadows, he sets his sights on his target. He thinks through his shot. Holding his breath, he fires. The enemy never sees it coming. Target down.

When you hear the word "sniper," the image that likely pops into your head is that of a concealed sharpshooter armed with a powerful rifle preparing to fire a kill shot from hundreds of yards away. There's a good reason for that.

Snipers are defined, at least in part, by their unique ability to eliminate targets at a distance, taking out threats without letting the enemy know that they are coming. It's a difficult job. Snipers typically operate at ranges between 600 and 1,200 meters, and occasionally take an enemy out from much farther away.

A Canadian special forces sniper, for instance, shattered the world record for longest confirmed kill shot in 2017, shooting an ISIS fighter dead in Iraq from over two miles away.

"There’s definitely people out there who have done amazing things," US Army First Sgt. Kevin Sipes, a veteran sniper and instructor at the sniper school at Fort Benning, Georgia, told Business Insider. "Anything is possible."

We asked a handful of elite US Army snipers, each of whom has engaged enemies in combat, what goes into long-range shots. Here is what these expert marksman had to say about shooting like a sniper.

Read More: Here's everything you need to know if you want to join the US Army

"There are a million things that go into being a sniper, and you have to be good at all of them," Sipes told BI.

First, a sharpshooter needs the right gear. A sniper's rifle is his most important piece of equipment, his lifeline. The two standard rifles used by conventional Army snipers are the gas M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System and the bolt-action M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle.

Bullets fired from these rifles leave the barrel at speeds in excess of 750 meters per second, more than two times the speed of sound.

The other critical assets a sniper never wants to go into the field without are his DOPE (Data on Previous Engagements) book and his consolidated data card or range card — hard data gathered in training that allow a sniper to accelerate the challenging shot process. Snipers do not have an unlimited amount of time to make a shot. They have to be able to act quick when called upon.

Second, while every Army sniper has the ability to carry out his mission independently, these sharpshooters typically work closely with their spotters, a critical set of extra eyes on the battlefield.

The two soldiers swap roles in training so that each person is crystal clear on the responsibilities of the other, ensuring greater effectiveness in combat.

Third, a sharpshooter needs a stable firing position, preferably one where the sniper is concealed from the watchful eyes of the enemy and can lie prone, with legs spread to absorb the recoil. Snipers do, however, train to shoot from other positions, such as standing or kneeling.

Read More: America's deadliest sharpshooters reveal how they disappear in plain sight

Fourth, the sniper and his spotter must have a comprehensive understanding of all of the difficult considerations and calculations that go into the shot process, Staff Sgt. Christopher Rance, sniper instructor team sergeant at Fort Benning, explained to BI. The team must measure atmospherics, determine range, determine wind, and then work together to fire accurately on a target.

"The biggest thing you have to consider is, right off the bat, your atmospherics," he said. These include temperature, station pressure, and humidity for starters. "The sniper has to account for all of that, and that is going to help formulate a firing solution."

An important tool is a sniper-spotter team's applied ballistics kestrel, basically a handheld weather station. "It automatically takes readings and calculates a firing solution based on the gun profile we build," Rance told BI.

Next, the pair determines range, which is paramount.

Against lower level threats like militants, snipers can use laser range finders. But trained soldiers likely have the ability to detect that. Against these advanced battlefield enemies, snipers must rely on the reticle in the scope.

"So, basically, we have this ruler, about three and a half, four inches in front of our eyes that’s inside the optic that can go ahead and mil off a target and determine a range through that," Rance said.

Once the sniper determines range, the next step is to determine the wind speed. Based on the distance to the target, the sniper must determine wind speed for different zones. "The sniper will then generally apply a hold," Rance explained. "He will dial the elevation on his optic, and he will hold for wind."

When firing from great distances, bullets don't fly straight. Over long range, bullets experience spin drift and gravity's toll, which causes it to slow down from initial supersonic flight. 

When it comes time to take the shot, the sniper will "fire on a respiratory pause," Capt. Greg Elgort, the company commander at the sniper school at Fort Benning, explained to BI. "He is naturally going to stop breathing before he pulls the trigger."

For an expert sniper, the gun will come straight back into his shoulder, and the scope ought to fall right back on target.

Fifth, a sniper has to be ready to quickly put another shot down range if the first fails to eliminate the threat. "If [the sniper] were to miss," Rance explained, "they only have a few seconds to do the second shot correction before that target seeks cover and disappears."

SEE ALSO: US Army sharpshooters reveal how they hunt enemy snipers in a deadly 'game of cat and mouse'

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• Joseph Hunter has been sentenced to life in prison, the Justice Department said Thursday.
• Hunter, a former Army sergeant, was a mercenary and was convicted of involvement in a contract killing.

A former Army sergeant who worked as a sniper instructor and carved out a post-military career as a mercenary under the moniker"Rambo" was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the contract killing of a woman in the Philippines, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.

• Joseph Hunter, who served in the Army from 1983 to 2004 and led air-assault and infantry squads, was found guilty in April 2018 of orchestrating the murder of real estate agent Catherine Lee with two other former soldiers.
• "With zero regard for human life, Joseph Hunter callously helped to arrange the murder of a Filipino woman in exchange for money," Geoffery Berman, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. "He and his co-defendants have now been sentenced to life behind bars for their heartless crimes."
• Hunter, 53, was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2015 to charges including conspiracy to murder a federal drug agent and import cocaine into the United States as an enforcer for South African businessman Paul Le Roux.
• Prosecutors had argued that, after leaving the military, Hunter "tortured, kidnapped and killed people for years along with other former soldiers,"per the Associated Press, murdering Lee because Le Roux "wanted to settle a score with the broker."
• During Hunter's trial, his defense attorney argued that years of military service had left Hunter with post-traumatic stress disorder, per the AP: "The country still owes something to Mr. Hunter."

SEE ALSO: These photos show why the US Coast Guard's snipers are some of the best in the business

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• US Army snipers recently tested a new lightweight sniper rifle built to offer more accurate fire at greater distances.
• The snipers field tested the new M110A1 Compact, Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS), an upgraded version of the M110 SASS currently used by Army snipers.
• To test the new rifle, the snipers put thousands of rounds downrange and battled it out in force-on-force exercises.

US Army sharpshooters recently field tested a new, more accurate sniper rifle out west, where these top marksman fired thousands of rounds and even when waged simulated warfare in force-on-force training.

Eight Army Ivy Division snipers assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team tested out the new M110A1 Compact, Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS), an upgraded version of the current M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS), at Fort Carson in Colorado, the Army revealed in a statement.

Comparatively, the new CSASS offers advantageous features like increased accuracy and reduced weight, among other improvements.

"The CSASS is smaller, lighter, and more ergonomic, as the majority of the changes were requested by the Soldiers themselves," Victor Yarosh, an individual involved in the weapon's development, explained last summer. "The rifle is easier to shoot and has less recoil, all while shooting the same round as the M110," which fires a 7.62 mm round.

"The CSASS has increased accuracy, which equates to higher hit percentages at longer ranges."

Read More: Shoot like a sniper — top Army marksmen reveal how they take out targets from far away

The recent testing involved having the "snipers employ the system in the manner and the environment they would in combat," according to Maj. Mindy Brown, a US Army Operational Test Command CSASS test officer.

Snipers put a total of 8,000 rounds downrange before battling it out in force-on-force exercises, and they did it all in freezing, single-digit temperatures.

The snipers described the exercises as "the best Sniper training they'd received since attending Sniper School at Fort Benning, GA." During the force-on-force drills, Army sniper teams went head to head in natural and urban environments, competing to see who could "infiltrate, detect, and engage whom first," the service said in a statement.

Read More: US Army sharpshooters reveal how they hunt enemy snipers in a deadly 'game of cat and mouse'

These types of drills are an "extremely fantastic way for us as Snipers to hone our field craft," Sgt. 1st Class Cecil Sherwood, one of the snipers involved in the testing said.

Read More: America's deadliest sharpshooters reveal how they disappear in plain sight

The CSASS has not been fielded yet, but last year, Congress approved the Army's planned $46.2 million purchase of several thousand CSASS rifles.

The Army began fielding the Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDM-R), distributing the weapon — a derivative of the CSASS — to a few select units for limited user testing last fall. The rifle "provides infantry, scout, and engineer squads the capability to engage with accurate rifle fire at longer ranges," the Army said.

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• More than 20 teams of snipers from around the world arrived in North Carolina last week for the US Army Special Operations Command International Sniper Competition.
• They brought their own sniper rifles, carbines, and pistols.
• The two-person teams tested their ability to work together, their speed, and and their accuracy in various environments.

Snipers from around the world tested their skills last week in intense events meant to look, feel and sound like combat.

The US Army Special Operations Command International Sniper Competition had 21 teams moving and shooting through a series of events designed to push competitors in their sniper and reconnaissance tactical skills.

Teams from the Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard also competed in the event March 17-22 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. But in the end it was the soldiers who won the top awards.

The top two places went to snipers from USASOC. The Marine Corps team came in third.

SEE ALSO: These photos show why the US Coast Guard's snipers are some of the best in the business

The teams represented these organizations:

• USASOC
• 1st, 3rd, 7th, 10th, 19th, and 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
• 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps
• Marine Corps Special Operations Forces Advanced Sniper Course
• Marine Corps Scout Sniper
• Naval Special Warfare
• Unites States Coast Guard
• 1st Premier Regiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine, France
• Kommando Spezialkräfte, Germany
• Army Ranger Wing, Ireland
• 9th Paratroopers Assault Regiment, Italy
• International Special Training Center

The shooters competed with their own sniper rifles, firing either 7.62 mm or 5.56 mm, their own carbines with 5.56 mm, and their own pistols in a variety of calibers.

They not only competed against each other and but against time limits, from four to eight minutes per event, with a limited quantity of ammo. The events change each year of the competition, each one designed by instructors from the Special Forces Sniper Course.

• The Army is developing new camouflage systems to hide soldiers from an emerging threat — high-end thermal sensors being developed by great-power rivals.
• The service is investing in new systems with the ability to effectively mask a soldier's body heat and break up his electronic signature, Gen. Mark Milley, the Army's chief of staff, told lawmakers.
• Army snipers previously told Business Insider that advanced thermal sensors are now one of the greatest challenges to concealment, but the Army has some new ideas that will let them disappear like never before.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

The US Army is working on new camouflage systems to protect soldiers waging war on future battlefields from one of the greatest threats to their survival, a top Army general told lawmakers on Tuesday.

"Advanced camouflage technologies are critical," Gen. Mark Milley, the Army's chief of staff, told the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, Military.com first reported. "We are putting a fair amount of money into advanced camouflage systems, both individual, unit, vehicle, etc."

The general said that future battlefields are likely to be "highly lethal" environments where "units will be cut off and separated," making soldier lethality and survivability key.

"We know that adversary [target] acquisition systems are very, very capable in that, if you can see a target, with precision munitions ... you can hit a target," he said. "So camouflage systems that break up electronic signatures and break up heat signatures are critical."

In an era of renewed great-power competition, the Army is increasingly looking closely at protecting soldiers against advanced threats from countries such as China and Russia. Among the greatest threats soldiers face is advanced sensing technology, a top US Army sniper previously told Business Insider.

"Defeating a thermal signature is probably the hardest thing that a sniper has to do, especially with the emerging technology by our near-peer enemies," Staff Sgt. David Smith, a sniper instructor at Fort Benning, said, adding that while it is easy for snipers to hide in the visible spectrum, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to disappear as US rivals "creep into the thermal arena."

A US Army soldier may be concealed and well hidden from the watchful eyes of the enemy but light up like a Christmas tree on a high-end thermal-imaging device, which can detect the temperature difference between a human body, typically 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and the environment they're hiding in. 

Read more: America's deadliest sharpshooters reveal how they disappear in plain sight

Milley didn't identify which systems the Army is working on, but the projects would likely include systems such as the new Ultra-Light Camouflage Netting System (ULCANS) and possibly the Improved Ghillie System (IGS) being developed for snipers.

ULCANS, developed by Fibrotex, is a kind of advanced camouflage designed to conceal troops from night vision, thermal imaging, radar, and more. The Army awarded Fibrotex a multimillion-dollar contract last year to supply US troops with this technology.

Read more: The US Army's new camouflage will hide soldiers and tanks in plain sight — wherever they are

The IGS is in testing and is expected to eventually replace the older Flame Resistant Ghillie System (FRGS) that Army sharpshooters are wearing now. It is unclear if this new system is designed to counter thermal sensors, but it is being put through full-spectrum testing.

Read more: Army snipers played hide-and-seek to test new camouflaged ghillie suits for next-level combat

It's not enough to just hide, Army soldiers are having to change the way they conceal themselves to disappear like they have never done before as adversaries step up their game.

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• As the US Army shifts its focus to new kinds of warfare, it's gear and weapons are changing as well.
• Airborne troops recently put the Army's new sniper rifle through airborne infiltration tests to see if it could withstand the rigors of their operations.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne recently conducted tests of the Army's newest offering for a compact sniper rifle— and they liked it.

Earlier this month snipers with the 82nd at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, put the Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System through airborne infiltration test trials.

One of the Operational Test Command's Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate NCOs, Sgt. 1st Class Ross Martin, said in a release that the compact nature of the rifle is appealing to airborne forces who have to maneuver their equipment in cramped planes for jumps.

Typically, the longer-barrel standard rifles can be cumbersome.

"Current sniper systems are equipped with 20-inch barrels, sound suppression systems and full-length stocks that provide accuracy and a stable firing platform required of any precision rifle," said David Parris, a CSASS trainer with US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command's Soldier Weapons Support.

As the Army shifts focus to dense urban environments the equipment, such as the sniper rifle, follow suit.

"The CSASS is smaller, lighter, and more ergonomic, as the majority of the changes were requested by the soldiers themselves," said Victor Yarosh told Army Times in 2018. Yarosh works on the Army's Soldier Weapons program.

"The rifle is easier to shoot and has less recoil, all while shooting the same round as the M110. [Additionally,] the CSASS has increased accuracy, which equates to higher hit percentages at longer ranges," Yarosh said.

The newest CSASS not only has a shorter barrel, but also an adjustable stock for easier transport and comfort.

"The CSASS is much shorter and lighter than our current system, which will make long dismounted movements and reaction to contact more efficient," said Spc. Nicholas Farmer, a sniper in C Troop, 1st Battalion, 73rd Cavalry Regiment.

Most M4s max out at near 300 meters, but the CSASS allows shooters to reach out to 600 meters. The new rifle can fire the M80A1 Enhanced Performance Round and the XM1158 Advanced Armor Piercing Round. It has a different buttstock and barrel twist than previous CSASS models, comes in just under 10 pounds and uses a Sig Sauer Tango 6 variable 1x6 power scope.

Spc. William Holland, a sniper with 2nd BN, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said that the rifle is "lightweight and compact, [which] makes for a more manageable load during post drop operations."

Being airborne, the soldiers rely on maintaining their weapon's optic zero, given the jostling and sometimes hard impact nature of their jobs.

To measure how well the CSASS maintains that zero, the test team used a mobile weapons bore sight collimator to ensure the "pre-mission" zero was not degraded by parachute infiltration shock. Once this data was collected, snipers conducted a known distance live fire after static line and military free fall operations.

Military Times reported in January that Special Operations Command snipers will soon use the Sig Sauer TANGO6T 1-6x24 Riflescope for their CSASS.

Sig Sauer also won the optic competition for the Army's Squad Designated Marksman Rifle with their TANGO6 scope.

The SDMR program has been part of a larger shift for the Army to put sniper-like capabilities inside of the squad, giving the base unit of the formation more range and lethality with its M110 Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System, or CSASS.

Tactically, Army leaders see the sniper as a force enhancer because they can conduct a number of missions.

"They provide a surveillance mission where they use their high-powered scope to observe activity downrange," Yarosh said.

"A sniper can pin down an enemy force through sniper concealment and engagement to provide the right shots at the right time. They can also prevent an enemy force from moving out of cover, which allows our maneuver forces to exploit the enemy by moving into a better position and engage."

SEE ALSO: These photos show why the US Coast Guard's snipers are some of the best in the business

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NOW WATCH: Former Navy SEAL sniper reveals how staying focused is the key to success

• The Marine Corps' new Mk13 Mod 7 sniper rifle reached full operational capacity earlier this year.
• The new rifle doesn't have the range of others in use by the military, but it is a long-awaited upgrade to the M40 sniper rifle that Marines have used since Vietnam.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The wait is over: The Marine Corps's brand new sniper is officially ready for action.

The Mk13 Mod 7 sniper rifle reached full operational capacity earlier this year after extensive testing, Marine Corps Systems Command announced on Wednesday. Now, the new rifle is finally available in both scout snipers and recon Marine arsenals.

"Scout snipers are now being fielded a weapon system that makes them even more lethal at distance than they were previously," MARCORSYSCOM project officer Capt. Nick Berger said in a release. "This weapon better prepares us to take the fight to any adversary in any clime and place."

Selected back back in March 2018 as a much-needed and long-overdue replacement for the M40 sniper system that Marines have wielded since the Vietnam War, the Mk13 is chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum and offers an effective range well over 1,000 yards.

While that effective range is nowhere near that of the Army's 1,300-yard M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle and US Special Operations Command's 1,600-yard Precision Sniper Rifle, it far outstrips the M40's comparatively limited reach amid the Pentagon's ongoing emphasis on lethality and precision fires.

"When shooting the Mk13, the bullet remains stable for much longer," MARCORSYSCOM infantry weapons team leader Maj. Mike Brisker said in a release. "The weapon gives you enough extra initial velocity that it stays supersonic for a much longer distance than the M40A6."

The Corps started fielding the a handful of infantry and reconnaissance battalions and scout sniper schoolhouses with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in September 2018, with plans to roll out the new system II MEF and II MEF units.

But according to MARCORSYSCOM, a scout sniper platoon with the "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines have been enjoying the Mk13 for "more than a year"— and according to the system's program officers, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

"At our new equipment trainings, the resounding feedback from the scout snipers was that this rifle is a positive step forward in the realm of precision-fire weapons," Berger, the MARCORSYSCOM project officer, said in the release. "Overall, there has been positive feedback from the fleet."

SEE ALSO: These soldiers are going airborne with the Army's newest sniper rifle

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NOW WATCH: Former Navy SEAL sniper reveals how staying focused is the key to success

• Shooting from a moving vehicle is no easy task, and that is especially true for helicopters.
• To fire precisely from a helicopter, aerial snipers have to battle the aircraft's vibrations, determine wind speed and direction when the wind is whirling all around them, and take into consideration a dozen other things before taking the shot.
• Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Hunter Bernius, a scout sniper and instructor at an advanced sniper training course that teaches this skill, talked to Business Insider about what it takes to do this job.
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories. 

It can be hard to take a precision shot on the ground. It can be even harder to do in the air. Helo-borne snipers are elite sharpshooters who have what it takes to do both.

"There are a million things that go into being a sniper, and you have to be good at all of them," veteran US Army sniper First Sgt. Kevin Sipes previously told Business Insider. When you put a sniper in a helicopter, that list can get even longer.

Read more: Shoot like a sniper — top Army marksmen reveal how they take out targets from far away

"Shooting from an aircraft, it is very difficult," US Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Hunter Bernius, a native Texan who oversees an advanced sniper training program focused on urban warfare, told BI.

"Getting into the aircraft is a big culture shock because there are more things to consider," he added. "But, it's just one of those things, you get used to it and learn to love it."

"Eyes in the sky"

Helo-borne snipers are called on to carry out a variety of missions. They serve as aerial sentinels for convoys and raid teams and provide aerial support for interdiction missions.

"As far as taking the shot, it is not often that we do that," Bernius explained to BI. "Our primary mission is reconnaissance and surveillance, just being eyes in the sky for the battlefield commander." But every aerial sniper is prepared to take the shot if necessary.

'It can throw you off'

Helo-borne snipers typically operate at ranges within 200 meters, closer ranges than some ground-based sharpshooters, and they're not, as Bernius put it, "shooting quarters off fence posts." That doesn't make hitting a target from a helicopter any less of a challenge.

Either sitting or kneeling, aerial snipers rest their weapon, a M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS) in the case of the Marines, on a prefabricated setup consisting of several straps the sniper can load into to reduce vibration. "We're constantly fighting vibration," Bernius said.

Like resting your gun on the hood of a big diesel truck while it's running, the helicopter vibrates quite a bit, Bernius explained. "If you're talking about a precision rifle, it's substantial when you are looking through a small scope at a hundred meters. It can throw you off a few inches or even more."

The vibration of the aircraft isn't the only concern. Aerial snipers also have to take into consideration rotor wash (the downward pressure from the rotating blades impacting the bullet as it leaves the barrel), wind direction and speed, altitude, and distance to target, among other things.

Communication with the pilots, who often act as spotters for these elite troops, is critical. "Going in without communicating is almost like going in blind," Bernius explained.

Before a sniper takes his shot, he loads into the rig to take any remaining slack out of the straps and dials in the shot, adjusting the scope for elevation and wind. Breathing out, he fires during a brief respiratory pause. If the sniper misses, he quickly follows with another round, which is one reason why the semi-automatic rifle is preferred to slower bolt-action rifles.

Helo-borne snipers can put precision fire down range regardless of whether or not the helicopter is in a stationary hover or moving. In cases where the aircraft is moving, the aerial snipers will sometimes use a lagging lead, counterintuitively placing the reticle behind the target, to get an accurate shot.

'Very familiar with being uncomfortable'

The urban sniper training that Bernius oversees is an advanced course for school-trained snipers, Marine Corps sharpshooters who have gone through the preliminary basic sniper training at Camp Pendleton in California, Camp Geiger in North Carolina, or Quantico in Virginia.

In the advanced sniper program, Marine Corps snipers go through four weeks of ground-based sniper training before transitioning to the air. "It's primarily 600-meters-in combat-style shooting from tripods, barricades, and improvised positions," Bernius told BI.

"The first three days is laying down in the prone, and then after that, they will never shoot from the prone again," he explained. "These guys get pretty good at putting themselves in awkward situations. They get very familiar with being uncomfortable," which is something that helps when the sniper moves into a cramped helicopter.

Nonetheless, moving from the ground to a helicopter is tough, and a lot of snipers get humbled, Bernius said. Fighting the vibrations inside the helicopter is difficult. "Some guys can really fight through it and make it happen, and some guys really struggle and they just can't get over it and can't make accurate shots," he explained.

In many cases, Bernius told BI, aerial snipers have to rely more heavily on instinct than the guys on the ground. That takes repetition. That takes practice.

But once a sniper has mastered these skills, they can use them not only in the air, which is the most challenging, but also in any other vehicle. The skills are transferable.

'I'm doing this for the love of my country'

Not everyone can be a Marine Corps sniper, and each person has their own motivations for serving. "I grew up in a small town in East Texas hunting, playing in the dirt, hiding in the woods. It was a lot of fun. I could do that all day, day in and day out," Bernius explained to BI.

That's not why he joined up, though.

Bernius had the opportunity to play baseball in college, but in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he decided to join the Marines instead. "I don't regret it one bit."

"I'm very patriotic," he said. "I'm doing this for the love of my country. I've been in 13 years. There's been a lot of ups and a hell of a lot of downs. But, I would say love of the country is what's keeping me around."

SEE ALSO: US Army sharpshooters reveal how they hunt enemy snipers in a deadly 'game of cat and mouse'

SEE ALSO: America's deadliest sharpshooters reveal how they disappear in plain sight

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• Snipers are defined, at least in part, by their ability to put precision fire on a target at great — sometimes extreme — distances.
• Staff Sgt. Hunter Bernius, a veteran Marine Corps scout sniper who runs an advanced urban sniper training course, walked INSIDER through his most technically difficult shot, which involved shooting at a target 2,300 meters (1.4 miles, or 7,545 feet) away.
• At that distance, it takes the bullet several seconds to reach the target, so the sniper must carefully factor in wind, direction, time of day, the spindrift of the round — and even the rotation of the Earth.
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

US military snipers have to be able to make the hard shots, the seemingly impossible shots. They have to be able to push themselves and their weapons.

Staff Sgt. Hunter Bernius, a veteran Marine Corps scout sniper who runs an advanced urban sniper training course, walked INSIDER through his most technically difficult shot: He fired a bullet into a target roughly 2,300 meters (1.4 miles, or 7,545 feet) away with a .50-caliber sniper rifle.

Read more:Here's how America's top snipers take the fight to the air, firing from helicopters with deadly accuracy

The longest confirmed kill shot was taken by a Canadian special forces sniper who shot an ISIS militant dead at 3,540 meters, or 2.2 miles, in Iraq in 2017. The previous record was held by Craig Harrison, a British sniper who shot and killed a Taliban insurgent from 2,475 meters away.

"There are definitely people out there who have done amazing things," US Army 1st Sgt. Kevin Sipes, a veteran sniper and instructor at the sniper school at Fort Benning, Georgia, told INSIDER. "Anything is possible."

Snipers are trained to scout the movements of enemy forces, often from very exposed positions, and are used to target enemy leaders and pin down their forces. These dangerous missions require them to become masters of concealment, as well as very skilled sharpshooters.

While 2,300 meters may not be a record, it is still a very hard shot to make.

'Hard math'

US military snipers typically operate at ranges of 600 to 1,200 meters. At extreme ranges, the Marine is pushing their weapon past its limits. The M107 semiautomatic long-range sniper rifles used by the Marine Corps can fire accurately out to only about 2,000 meters.

"Shooting on the ground can be easy, especially when you are shooting 600 meters in or 1,000 meters in. That's almost second nature," Bernius said. "But when you are extending it to the extremes, beyond the capability of the weapon system, you have all kinds of different things to consider."

At those longer ranges, a sniper has to rely a lot more on "hard math" than just shooter instinct.

Bernius, a Texas native who has deployed to Iraq and other locations across the Middle East, made his most technically difficult shot as a student in the advanced sniper course, a training program for Marine Corps sharpshooters who have already completed basic sniper training.

"When I came through as a student at the course I am running now, my partner and I were shooting at a target at approximately 2,300 meters," Bernius said. "We did in fact hit it, but it took approximately 20 to 25 minutes of planning, thinking of everything we needed to do with calculations, with the readings."

At that distance, INSIDER learned, it can take the bullet roughly six to eight seconds to reach the target, meaning there is a whole lot of time for any number of external factors to affect where it lands.

"You have all kinds of considerations," Bernius told INSIDER, explaining that snipers have to think about "the rotation of the Earth, which direction you are facing, wind at not just your muzzle but at 2,300 meters, at 1,000 meters, you name it."

Direction and rotation of the Earth are considerations that most people might not realize come into play.

Which direction the sniper is facing can affect the way the sun hits the scope, possibly distorting the image inside and throwing off the shot. It also determines how the rotation of the planet affects the bullet, which may hit higher or lower depending on the sniper's position.

"This is only for extreme long-range, shots over 2,000 meters," Bernius said.

Other possible considerations include the temperature, the humidity, the time of day, whether the sniper is shooting over a body of water (it can create a mirage), the shape of the bullet, and the spindrift of the round.

"We ended up hitting it," Bernius said. "That, to me, was probably the most technically difficult shot."

SEE ALSO: Here's how America's top snipers take the fight to the air, firing from helicopters with deadly accuracy

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• Sniper teams from the Army's 1st Armored Division gathered in the desert of Texas and New Mexico to find the division's best sharpshooter.
• The winner of Iron Sniper 2019 gets to represent the division in the International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, next April.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

FORT BLISS, Texas — The sharp crack of an M110 semi-automatic sniper system and a faint plume of sand are the only signs of activity across the glinting sands of New Mexico, as sniper teams engaged targets with unparalleled proficiency.

Sniper teams from 1st Armored Division competed in the Iron Sniper 2019 competition, hosted by 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1AD, August 13-14 at Fort Bliss, Texas and Dona Ana Range Complex, New Mexico.

The competition determines the top sniper team from across 1AD to represent the division at the International Sniper Competition next April in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Sgt. John Sis, an infantryman assigned to 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1 AD and native of Annapolis, Maryland, alongside teammate Spc. Colin Clayton, a cavalry scout assigned to 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1ABCT and a native of Denton, Texas, won the competition, receiving an Army Commendation medal and the chance to represent 1AD.

"This competition shows to me that we're some of the best," said Sis. "The next step is the International Sniper competition, an annual event held at Fort Benning where they have people come in from all branches of the service and other countries to compete to see who the best are."

SEE ALSO: The Marine Corps' first new sniper rifle since the Vietnam War is finally ready for combat

Throughout the first day of the competition, competitors used their physical fitness and endurance as well as their mental acuity and sniper proficiency to complete several exhausting tasks.

"They began the competition with the Army Combat Fitness Test in full kit and then proceeded to complete a written exam," said Cpt. Nicholas Hurff, the assistant operations officer for 2-37 AR. "They further completed a six-mile ruck march in the summer heat out to a stalking event, where they were completely camouflaged and attempted to infiltrate an area in order to gain shooting positions on a target. They then completed an intelligence collection lane."

On the second day of the competition, the competitors utilized their weapons skills and proficiencies as they shot and transitioned between their M110 sniper rifle, M4 carbine and Beretta M9 pistol as they competed against each other in a series of weapons tests.

Competitors engaged targets using their M110 sniper rifle, or long gun, then quickly switched to their M4 carbine or Beretta M9 pistol to engage shorter range targets while physically moving between objectives.

"The following day involved a day and night shooting competition," said Hurff. "These events ranged from long gun stable firing to multiple engagements while moving during short-range stress shoots."

Instructors at The United States Army Sniper Course educate and train Soldiers who are selected to be critical and creative thinkers, instilling traits of adaptiveness and tactical excellence in their Soldiers, all of which were on full display from the competitors during the competition.

"We're trained to pick out the small and tiny deficiencies in the terrain that can lead us to help identify targets and engage the enemy faster," said Sgt. Jacob Kehler, an infantryman assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, native of Williamsport, Pennsylvania and a member of the runner-up team in the competition. "It just comes down to maintaining your proficiency as you've been taught it. We should be able to come out here and perform these tasks, even if they are challenging."

Snipers play an integral role within 1AD and the Army as a whole, providing unique skills which are essential in providing superior combat capabilities.

"Snipers provide a dual purpose. Not only do they have the ability to be lethal at range, but they're able to provide intelligence collection on objectives," said Hurff.

"So when you have Soldiers moving forward, actually hitting the objective, you're able to have ground personnel watching the objective where they're collecting information such as the number of people, disposition and composition, allowing Soldiers to be more effective and lethal on the objective and therefore able to save more lives," Hurff said.

Sis and Clayton have the unique opportunity to represent 1AD at the International Sniper Competition, providing them the opportunity to further distinguish themselves among their peers and from other divisions.

"You want the best teams to represent you at the International Sniper Competition," said Hurff. "Representing 1AD at these large scale competitions reflects greatly on the Soldiers, their unit and the division."

• To carry out their mission, snipers must be masters of concealment and be able to disappear in any environment, be it desert, woodland, sand, or snow.
• The ghillie suit, a kind of artificial camouflage, is key to concealment. The US Army recently released photos of a sniper school instructor showing off the various pieces of a sniper's ghillie suit.
• To effectively conceal themselves on the battlefield, snipers must also have an understanding of their environment and the tactics of concealment.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Snipers have to be able to disappear on the battlefield in a way that other troops do not, and the ghillie suit is a key part of what makes these elite warfighters masters of concealment.

"A sniper's mission dictates that he remains concealed in order to be successful," Staff Sgt. Ricky Labistre, a sniper with 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry Regiment of the California National Guard, previously explained.

Read more: Army snipers played hide-and-seek to test new camouflaged ghillie suits for next-level combat

"Ghillie suits provide snipers that edge and flexibility to maintain a concealed position,"he added.

A ghillie suit is a kind of camouflaged uniform that snipers use to disappear in any environment, be it desert, woodland, sand, or snow. US Army Staff Sgt. David Smith, an instructor at the service's sniper school, recently showed off a ghillie suit that he put together from scratch using jute twine and other materials.

There are many different types of ghillie suit. This particular suit is designed for woodland or grassland environments, Fort Benning told Insider.

Concealing yourself from from the watchful eyes of the enemy is about putting "anything you can between you and whatever might be observing you," Smith previously told Insider. "The main things we use to conceal ourselves would be the clothing we wear, our ghillie suits, and the hides we construct."

Read more: America's deadliest sharpshooters reveal how they disappear in plain sight

To design a ghillie suit for a mission, Army snipers "start with a base layer of artificial camouflage," Smith said, explaining that this allows them to "be a little more expedient in the field" because "it gives us a base we can change from a little bit more rapidly."

A ghillie suit, as can be seen here, is designed with loose strips resembling natural backgrounds like grass, and they can, when designed and implemented properly, make snipers nearly invisible in the visual spectrum.

The aim is to break up and distort the sniper's outline, making it harder for the enemy to spot them before it is too late. That requires more than just a well-designed suit. "The best tool snipers can use to disguise and conceal themselves from the enemy is a solid understanding of their surroundings," Capt. Greg Elgort, a company commander at the Army sniper school at Fort Benning, previously told Insider.

Snipers also have to understand the tactics of concealment. They have to manage their tracks, scent, shadow, glare and any number of other things to avoid being spotted.

When it all comes together, snipers become undetectable sharpshooters with ability to provide overwatch, scout enemy positions, or eliminate threats at great distances. "No one knows you're there. I'm watching you, I see everything that you are doing, and someone is about to come mess up your day," First Sgt. Kevin Sipes, a veteran Army sniper, previously told Insider.

• Snipers have one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs on the battlefield, and the stress from that can be tremendous.
• Many snipers said they handled their job's intense pressures by quieting their worries and allowing their training to guide them.
• "This profession as a whole constitutes a difficult lifestyle where we have to get up every day and train harder than the enemy, so that when we meet him in battle we make sure to come out on top," a Marine scout sniper said.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

There are few "safe" jobs in armed conflict, but certainly one of the toughest and most dangerous is that of a sniper. They must sneak forward in groups of two to spy on the enemy, knowing that an adversary who spots them first may be lethal. Here's what Army and Marine Corps snipers say it takes to overcome the life-or-death stress of their job.

"As a scout sniper, we are going to be constantly tired, fatigued, dehydrated, probably cold, for sure wet, and always hungry," Marine scout sniper Sgt. Brandon Choo told the Department of Defense earlier this year.

The missions snipers are tasked with carrying out, be it in the air, at sea, or from a concealed position on land, include gathering intelligence, killing enemy leaders, infiltration and overwatch, hunting other snipers, raid support, ballistic IED interdiction, and the disruption of enemy operations.

Many snipers said they handled their job's intense pressures by quieting their worries and allowing their training to guide them.

"There is so much riding on your ability to accomplish the mission, including the lives of other Marines," a Marine scout sniper told Insider recently. "The best way to deal with [the stress] is to just not think about it." An Army sniper said the same thing, telling Insider that "you don't think about that. You are just out there and reacting in the moment. You don't feel that stress in the situation."

These sharpshooters explained that when times are tough, there is no time to feel sorry for yourself because there are people depending on you. Their motivation comes from the soldiers and Marines around them.

Learning to tune out the pressures of the job is a skill developed through training. "This profession as a whole constitutes a difficult lifestyle where we have to get up every day and train harder than the enemy, so that when we meet him in battle we make sure to come out on top," Choo told DoD.

'You are always going to fall back on your training.'

So, what does that mean in the field, when things get rough?

"You are going to do what you were taught to do or you are going to die," 1st Sgt. Kevin Sipes, a veteran Army sniper, told Insider. "Someone once told me that in any given situation, you are probably not going to rise to the occasion," a Marine scout sniper, now an instructor, explained. "You are always going to fall back on your training."

"So, if I've trained myself accordingly, even though I'm stressing out about whatever my mission is, I know that I'll fall back to my training and be able to get it done," he said. "Then, before I know it, the challenge has passed, the stress is gone, and I can go home and drink a beer and eat a steak."

Choo summed it up simply in his answers to DoD, saying, "No matter what adversity we may face, at the end of the day, we aren't dead, so it's going to be all right."

Do the impossible once a week.

Sometimes the pressures of the job can persist even after these guys return home.

In that case, Sipes explained, it is really important to "talk to someone. Talk to your peers. Take a break. Go and do something else and come back to it." Another Army sniper previously told Insider that it is critical to check your ego at the door, be brutally honest with yourself, and know your limits.

In civilian life, adversity can look very different than it does on the battlefield. Challenges, while perhaps not life-and-death situations, can still be daunting.

"I think the way that people in civilian life can deal with [hardship] is by picking something out, on a weekly basis, that they in their mind think is impossible, and they need to go and do it," a Marine sniper told Insider. "What you're going to find is that more often than not, you are going to be able to achieve that seemingly-impossible task, and so everything that you considered at that level or below becomes just another part of your day."

He added that a lot more people should focus on building their resilience.

"If that is not being provided to you, it is your responsibility to go out and seek that to make yourself better."

SEE ALSO: This soldier may look like Chewbacca, but his suit makes him one of the deadliest fighters on the battlefield

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• A good sniper has to be able to hide in plain sight, which means they have to master camouflage and concealment.
• Insider recently visited Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and observed stalking training, where snipers in training attempt to slip past instructors undetected to put fire on a target.
• Before they entered the field, the students were given the opportunity to paint their faces and "veg up," where they customize their ghillie suits with vegetation.
• These photos show how snipers use grass and other vegetation to disappear.
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

Camouflage and concealment are vital skills every sniper must have in order to hide in plain sight, a necessary ability if a sniper is to fulfill their mission and survive on a modern battlefield.

Insider recently had the opportunity to observe a group of snipers at the Scout Sniper School at Marine Corps Base Quantico go through stalking training, an exercise where the students practice sneaking into a position where they could effectively fire on a target without, at any point, being spotted by the instructors.

At the base, it's high-stakes hide-and-seek that will determine whether they become Marine Corps scout snipers. On the battlefield, a mistake can mean life or death. In these photos, you can see how these troops gear up to disappear.

Read more: A top sniper slipped past about a dozen Marines — no one saw him even when he was less than 3 feet away

Before the training began, the snipers painted their faces, covering features that stand out, such as the nose and cheekbones, with brown paint and flat features with green. The snipers also sometimes put a little black paint just under their eyes.

Face paint that is too dark or too light can give away a sniper's position, and it did for at least one student during the training. "It was so unnatural," an instructor said.

The students then grabbed their gear and jogged out to the vegetation site, a location roughly 1,000 meters from the observation post where the sniper school instructors were positioned.

The snipers were given 10 minutes to customize their ghillie suits, in this case a mesh cover to which students attach vegetation to help them blend into their environment. A top sniper can complete this process much faster.

To "veg up," as the process is called, the snipers collect grasses and other vegetation and weave it into the their mesh covers.

As one of the instructors explained, the idea is to create a natural look that will help them blend into the negative space.

Read more:This Marine Corps sniper put a bullet in a target 8,000 feet away — here's how he took one of the hardest shots of his life

The snipers do not want to be seen as the bush. They want to be the space between the bushes.

They also want to break up and distort their outline to obscure features that are likely to cause a human being to stand out in the environment in which they hope to achieve concealment.

Every sniper approaches the vegetation and camouflage process a little differently.

But camouflage is only one part of the equation. Snipers also have to carefully consider their movement, their screens, both natural and artificial, their cover, and their body position.

These snipers also have to watch out for things like deflection, which can cause them to fail the mission by missing their shot, and muzzle blast and shadow, which can give away their position as some students learned the hard way during the training.

Vegged up and ready to go, the students ventured out into the field for their first stalking exercise. While the instructors scored a few "kills," a number of the students made it through. This exercise will eventually decide who becomes a scout sniper. Those that fail will not.

• The Marine Corps has been working on refinements to its sniper training since 2016 in order to alleviate shortages.
• The Corps may soon open a new course, a shortened version of the Marine scout sniper 0317 MOS course, and a new job title: 0315 Marine scout primary MOS.
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A new proof of concept sniper course might create a new job title in the shooting community.

That's because in 2018 the Marines announced a new course that would reallocate personnel from the School of Infantry-West and the Basic Reconnaissance Course for a 0315 course.

Originally, the course was set to begin February but has since been moved to May, as directed by Training and Education Command officials, said 1st Lt. Samuel Stephenson, TECOM spokesman. That was to provide sufficient staffing and when resources would be available.

It will be held at SOI-West.

Currently, Marine scout snipers, 0317 MOS, train through the full gamut of skills before qualifying to hold the title and then get assigned to units. That course is nearly three months.

The proposed 0315 Marine scout primary MOS would have a skillset primarily focused on advanced scouting and patrolling, with a progressive career track similar to other 03XX PMOS, Stephenson wrote in an email.

The new proof of concept would divide the course, providing a shortened version for the initial 0315 MOS before that individual would then be shipped back to a unit to perform scout duties and guidance from unit 0317 snipers.

The Corps has faced sniper shortages in recent years as the intense school has a high failure rate. In 2017, Marine Corps Times reported a "­critical gap" due to those failure rates. From 2013 to mid-2018 the Marine Corps produced only 226 snipers. The Corps usually has 300 snipers on hand across the force.

Headquarters Marine Corps personnel have been working on refinements to sniper training progression to address gaps since at least 2016, ­Stephenson wrote.

But in 2018, only 150 sergeants and below held the 0317 scout sniper MOS.

Past classes averaged about 100 attendees but in 2017 only 42 students attended and that number rose to only 77 by mid-2018, the most recent period Marine Corps Times had data available.

SEE ALSO: The Marine Corps is now required to integrate men and women down to the platoon level during boot camp

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