A Canadian sniper has broken the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history, hitting an ISIS insurgent from a distance of 3,540 meters away; that translates to 3,871 yards or 2.1 miles.
According to the Toronto-based Globe and Mail, the Canadian Armed Forces said the sniper is a member of Joint Task Force 2 and made the shot using a McMillan TAC-50 — the Canadian Army’s standard sniper rifle since 2000 — while on a high-rise building in an operation that went down during the past month. The shot took less than 10 seconds to reach its target.
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“The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [Islamic State] attack on Iraqi security forces,” an anonymous military source told the Globe and Mail. “Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening.”
The record-breaking shot was independently verified via video and other data.
Up until now, the longest kill shot on record was accomplished by British sniper Craig Harrison, who took out a Taliban gunner from 2,475 meters, or 1.53 miles away, in 2009.
Before that, the record was held by Canadian Master Cpl. Arron Perry, who shot and killed a Taliban insurgent from 2,310 meters — 2,526 yards or 1.4 miles — in March 2002. Weeks later, Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong broke Perry’s record by fatally shooting an insurgent from 2,430 meters — 2,657 yards or 1.50 miles — away. Both kills took place during Operation Anaconda.
The record for the longest confirmed sniper kill shot by a U.S. soldier is held by Sgt. Bryan Kremer of the Army’s 2nd Ranger Battalion, who in 2004 used his Barrett M82A1 to take down an Iraqi insurgent from a distance of 2,300 meters — 2,515 yards or 1.42 miles.
Joint Task Force 2 primarily works in counterterrorism, but they also conduct hostage rescue and other operations, the Globe and Mail said. It’s regarded as an elite organization, with scant information available about the unit due to the classified nature of its work.
Canadian snipers are reportedly highly respected by Western military units.
“This is a skill set that only a very few people have,” a source told the Globe and Mail.
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The skill required starts to come into focus when one considers that the Canadian sniper set the new record by making his shot from 3,871 yards out.
“It is at the distance where you have to account not just for the ballistics of the round, which change over time and distance, you have to adjust for wind, and the wind would be swirling,” another source told the Globe and Mail. “You have to adjust for him firing from a higher location downward and as the round drops you have to account for that. And from that distance you actually have to account for the curvature of the Earth.”
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