Forty six candidates arrive at the US Army's Sniper School in Ft.
Benning, Georgia every seven weeks.
Typically only 4 graduate.
Think you have what it takes?
That’s what we’ll find out today, in this episode of The Infographics Show- how to become
a US Army sniper.
Pulling the trigger is only half the battle.
You're going to need to know more than just guns; excellent proficiency in physics and
mathematics is a must-have for any would-be sniper.
When your only job on a battlefield is to be accurate, and a single shot could turn
the tide of a battle, a US Army sniper must be able to calculate the effect that wind,
gravity, distance, and even the Coriolis Effect- the effect of the earth's rotation on a moving
object- will all cumulatively have on a bullet as it travels through the air.
Before you even get to sniper school though, you'll undergo the Army Physical Fitness Test
with your home unit, and you’re expected to earn top marks.
You'll also need experience as an infantry, cavalry, or special forces soldier, and you
must have earned an extremely high score in the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery.
Next, you'll undergo a thorough psychological evaluation, since you'll be spending most
of your career alone in a 2-man crew, and the US Army needs to know that you have the
mental fortitude to handle the pressures of the job and isolation both.
Let's say you pass all those requirements and make it to day 1 of sniper school though...well,
the first thing you can expect is yet another physical fitness test followed by a marksmanship
test with the M-4 assault rifle using only iron sights.
Fail either test and that’s it for you, you go home.
At the start of your second week, you'll be faced with your next pass-or-fail test: you
and your class will camouflage yourself on one of the school's wilderness courses and
maintain your position for hours while instructors search for you with high powered optics.
You'll be expected to ignore the scorching Georgia heat, crawling ants, spiders, snakes
and other creepy crawleys; if you move or are spotted, you automatically fail the course.
You'll also undergo target detection training, and you’ll be taught to use your eyes, binoculars
and rifle scope to detect targets.
These skills will be tested throughout the week, and failure means you go home.
Weeks three through five will pair you with another student, and you'll both swap as shooter
and spotter.
The spotter is responsible for calculating wind and other environmental effects, feeding
his shooter the critical data needed to make an accurate shot.
Throughout these three weeks, you'll spend your time either in the classroom are at the
range, testing your mental fitness and marksmanship both.
If you fail any of your marksmanship tests, you go home.
You'll spend week six learning how to shoot from different positions, as a sniper rarely
ever shoots from the famous prone firing position.
You'll be forced to contort your body uncomfortably, hold the position for hours at a time, and
still deliver an accurate shot to a predetermined target.
Failure means you go home.
Your final and seventh week will be a test of all your previous lessons.
You will plan and execute a sniper and countersniper mission, undergoing urban infiltration and
hide setup techniques.
You'll then move to the woods and learn to build subsurface hides, meticulously camouflaged
holes in the ground where a sniper may live for days at a time in a real-world mission.
Finally you'll undergo a final culmination exercise which will test your skills in stalking,
detecting a target, estimating range, and accurate shooting.
Failure in any element of the course means- you guessed it- you go home.
The US Army employs some of the deadliest snipers in the world, and of all that apply,
only a tiny percentage will ever reach graduation.
Think you have what it takes?
Who do you think was the deadliest sniper of all time?
Let us know in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video called A day in the life of a US Marine.
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!