Snipers

> You know, I don't think a sniper would get a suppression with a

Interesting point. Even if he did hit there's not much chance of getting a
suppression on a unit unless there's some pretty spectacular special effects
when the target gets hit.

** If a guy in the unit drops, the unit is likely to be momentarily
suppressed.

With a modern day rifle there's all that blood and stuff to let people know
that it's dangerous, and a far away report to let you know how far away the
shooter really was. If all you've got is young Timmy quietly falling over
there isn't anything to cause the need to hit cover.

** Hmm. Most modern sniper rifles can be equipped with suppressors and flash
hiders. That pretty much nullifies that thought... though often military
snipers use the report of their weapon to achieve the effect.

> Of course, there's always the lasers designed to make noise.

Which implies a sniper laser has to be tweaked to make sure it causes special
effects in order to be efficient.

** Nope: Imagine I miss. I'll hit something near my target probably. If I
liberate 50 kW (I have no idea what a real value is) into a small boulder, it
could explode and throw shrapnel. If I hit a tree, it'll spray bark and burst
into flame. If I hit water, it'll sublimate to steam explosively. In any case,
the unit is confronted with being under attack by a nasty weapon and NOT
knowing where it is coming from. Suppresionville, population YOU.

From: JohnDHamill@aol.com

But in combined actions, where the sniper or marksman is working with a squad
or larger unit, firing in suppression attempts is a pretty common practice, it
lets the squad move on the opposing unit, while taking much less fire in
return. Most troops are more scared of snipers than auto-fire, and
will freeze in place when sniped at.

** Autofire might kill you in some random impersonal way. A sniper is trying
very intentionally to kill you and they don't shoot to miss. Missing is
anathema to them. One shot, one kill is the motto of most sniper types. So it
is small wonder such fire is effective.

When I was in the Army ( longer ago than i want to remember) it was fairly
common for our unit to detach our best shots into separate "sniper teams"
(they didn't have the training of real snipers, but they were called that) who
used just that tactic.

** So these were "regular" or "green" snipers rather than vet or elite. Tactic
still is viable.

This is an unusual tactic, definately not "by the book", but our CO was an
unusual guy,

** Sounds like a smart fellow.

and we usually won any exercise we were in, because of his unorthodox tactics.
It definately worked, as we would often hold up large groups by sending 2 or 3
man teams to plink at them, from different areas. Drove them nuts...

As to ranging on the shot and why we use pulse lasers:

A continuous beam that requires seconds on target is no good. Target
might move. We need to deliver the hit very much like a bullet - over
a very short period of time. Plus it makes ablative armour less effective. A
pulse will arrive packing a lot of punch, giving armour a very short time to
act on the large energy impulse, and will not backtrack easily. It will
probably be invisible due to the short pulse, even in smokey scenarios. It
won't allow the target to move taking less damage. It'll be brutal to
backtrack. And it'll cause things with fluid in them (human cells, trees,
rivers, dirt...) to explode from superheating. (Well, the degree of this
depends on laser power). It might even kick a bit if the energy is high
enough.

So, the laser sniper weapon will probably have much the same value as a
conventional rifle. If it is powerful, it might even have enough kick to
suffer the same accuracy issues justifying the same range bands. (Though in
space, with no atmosphere, it'd be preferable). I imagine the sound of a laser
would be a result of ionization as it moves through the atmosphere... probably
a sharp crack as air rushes in to fill the void of ionized gas created by the
beam... much like a rifle. I've seen high powered lasers fire and heard them.
They weren't entirely quiet...and when they are fired into objects, those
objects tend to make noises (never seen them shot into a human, but I assume
he or she would make lots of noise).

And as to suppresion vs effect:

Sniper suppresion is not the product of mass volley fire like infantry
suppresion. Their is no "fire to suppress" for a sniper. It is fire for
effect. You might miss (try not to) but you'll suppress even if you do due to
the psychological impact of your attack type. Snipers tend to not shoot when
they don't have a target, and if they do shoot, they try to hit. Match grade
ammo is sometimes hard to come by, and they don't carry enough of it to hose
off the surroundings. They don't
always hit, but they don't shoot to not hit. IMO - YMMV.