The U.S. Army is integrating technology into its famed Sniper Course at Fort Benning, Georgia to protect snipers from being detected by drones. Snipers operate in small teams and by blending into their environment–a task being increasingly challenged by Unmanned Aircraft Systems with thermal imaging capabilities.
“That’s what really drove us to develop these plans because those are the type of assets our near-peer adversaries are going to have in large-scale combat operations,” Staff Sgt. Brett Bollinger, an Army Sniper Course instructor, said in a statement.
“We’ve been evaluating products with the objective of defeating thermal sensors, whether it be aerial or ground systems,” Bollinger said.
How Drones Challenge Snipers
Unmanned Aircraft Systems, including fiber optic drones, can reconnoiter vast stretches of territory and can use a wide variety of sensors to perform surveillance. This complicates the mission of snipers and their ability to function in the field.
Drones can potentially zero in on snipers using cameras from across long distances or by hovering above unseen. Thermal detection technology puts snipers at greater risk of being spotted and makes them vulnerable to being targeted for attack.
The Army’s course is providing snipers with foundational training in Unmanned Aircraft Systems to familiarize them with the fundamentals of how drones operate. Additionally, the course is teaching them how to conceal themselves from a variety of electromagnetic sensors that drones use, including different varieties of thermal imaging systems.
Teaching Snipers New Evasion Skills
The sniper course began working with drone manufacturers last summer to test various types of drone imaging techniques, allowing private companies to gauge their drones’ effectiveness at perception and the snipers to practice better concealment.
“We were able to camouflage a vehicle, set up a static hide site and then observe it with thermal products [the company] brought out, to see what such a scene would look like and how effective their technology is,” according to Bollinger.
By incorporating both technology and new evasion techniques into its curriculum, the Army is recognizing that existing battlefield norms have been upended. Upgrading the sniper curriculum represents an effort to get ahead of the curve.
As snipers become more advanced in concealment techniques, private industry will likely continue to improve drone systems’ detection abilities – making this a new challenge of warfare that will likely continue and become steadily more complex and demanding.
