Sniper school faces shot in the head

Mikk Salu
, reporter
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Photo: Raigo Pajula

Defence Forces’ sniper school staff is leaving their posts, some due to end of Afghani missions, others because of differences. Snipers think this means dismantling of entire Estonia’s training system.

The sniper school attached to Kalevi Battalion is being closed down; headquarters call it restructuring, with future trainings to be continued at Viru Battalion. Snipers themselves think this to be hot air, being convinced systemic sniper training is about to die out in the land.

For many weeks now, the talk of the defence circles is that Defence Forces are about to wind its sniper school down. «I predict the headquarters will, of course, deny this and tell journalists something about restructurings and renewal,» says a Defence League member familiar with the sniper business.

The prophecy came to pass, to the word. Information officer Simmo Saar, tasked with providing explanation, proceeded to announce: «It is not planned to close down the sniper school. True, its subordination and structure will change.» Insiders are not convinced: the reality being that, in its current form, sniper training in Estonia will disappear. At best, this could be called a huge setback. At the worst – a deathblow.

Wages won’t hold

Participants i.e. sniper school folks will not communicate with media. The job being of the kind where it is not desirable to advertise one’s name and face. Surely, they are also bound by contracts ordering them to keep mum. Even so, it is known to Postimees that the current sniper school staff (mostly specialists ranked Warrant Officers or Senior Warrant officers) are simply leaving the Defence Forces. The school is bleeding men; this, essentially, could be called closing down a school.

The reasons for leaving differ. For sure, they do not like the so-called restructuring. With some, an additional factor may be the ceasing of foreign missions – up to now, sniper school people could occasionally visit Afghanistan. Both to get experience, and also earning much-needed extra money.

However, holding such specialists in Defence Forces by a usual Warrant Officer salary would be very hard. All told: the motivation is gone. Matters made worse by differences between subordinates (sniper school) and superiors (headquarters) on what Estonian sniper training really is, what it should look like and what might be its future.

Estonia has had sniper training ever since Defence Forces were restored. For clarity’s sake, the terms «sharpshooter» and «sniper» may be used as synonyms, even though the weapons and actions differ: in practice, a missions’ soldier may, at times, assume the role of a sharpshooter, armed with a precision weapon; at other times he may grab a real sniper gun and act as bona fide sniper. Partially, this would overlap; and both are being taught.

At the very beginning, sniper training in Estonia used to be random and with uneven quality. Sometimes, decent instructors were brought over, mostly from Finland; at other times, clown were hired. For instance: UK once sent a bunch of instructors over, to teach Estonians to snipe. After the initial informal evening meal (trying to avoid the words ‘drunken revelry’), the Brits were discovered to be gunners. A week or two before departure, they were handed a sniper manual and told to go teach them Eastern Europeans how to hit the mark. 

Twice, however, systematic sniper training has happened in Estonia. First, sniper training was established at the Intelligence Battalion, a dozen years ago. A system was created, study programmes compiled, specialists were developed. A couple of years later, the Intelligence Battalion initiative collapsed under intrigues.

Then, the current sniper school was launched. Excellent and experienced specialists were summoned, study and training programmes were created. Training is comprehensive: the school teaches active servicemen, recruits, Defence League members, policemen, even partner states representatives (such as Lithuanian servicemen). An integrated training system is in place: ballistics, weapons, shooting, camouflage, movement. Missions’ soldiers have also been taught how to discover snipers and counteract those. For such format, this is the end.

Continuity cut

Defence Forces spokespeople do not interpret it quite that negative. Information officer Simmo Saar adds that, in the future, the subunit is to be placed under Viru Infantry Battalion, located in Jõhvi; instead of the current six posts, three persons will be employed. What exactly will happen after that, nobody knows... or is unwilling to tell us, yet.

With departure of trained specialists, an inevitable hole is created. Possibly, they will find some Warrant Officer with prior stints in sniping, who will be, from time to time, «dispatched» to teach a course – as other duties allow. Maybe, the word «sniper school» will someday again be written, by somebody, into some development plans; and then the system will again be built from scratch – as it has already been done twice.

Of course, all is not that negative. A couple of years back, for instance, excellent sniper weapons were purchased for missions’ soldiers: the French Hecate II and the Finnish Sako TRG-42.

Active servicemen’s main precision weapon, however, is a modified M14-TP (TP standing for precision weapon, täpsuspüss in Estonian). This is a flop. Some weapons have had their trigger mechanisms damaged with modifications, so that single shots are impossible, the guns only capable of automatic fire. Even worse: as M14 were being modified, excellent and expensive optics were purchased; it proved, however, impossible to be fastened to the weapons. After every couple of shots, the optics is shaken loose and is in need of repair.

Over the years, various options have been tried, with versions TP1 and TP2 developed. But, if in official documents this, as said, means precision weapons, in the soldiers’ slang is has come to stand for two four-letter words.

Another topic, altogether, is places to shoot: firing ranges of 500, 1,000 or more metres are a rarity.

With all these weaknesses, sniper school has served as a tie that binds, a kind of a foundation – among other things, training the next generation of instructors, future teachers. From now on, those headed for missions will be on their own, having excellent weapons, skills and options to use both.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are the Defence League enthusiasts, who have poured thousand of personal euros into weapons, equipment and trainings. They, also, will keep on going, attending contests and winning medals. Whatever falls between these two extremes, will, alas, be patchy.

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