(cough)
I will say that the Canadian marksman program for our army is world class. I know, I taught it. And to be a sniper in a army team, you have to be marksman qualified to get into the program. The sniper program is two-roles - sniper and spotter. Here's the kicker, if you're a spotter, you're also a sniper. We train both roles into the same group. So a spotter is also an experienced sniper, and a sniper is also an experienced spotter. There are no 'just spotter' jobs in a sniper team. We found that having the spotter understand the stresses of a sniper were helpful in the field so that they knew the challenges of the role - and vice versa. These kinds of snipers are #3 and #4 on the world's longest sniper shots.
Now, if you're in our JTF special forces, not only are you a marksman and a top soldier, you need to pass our entrance exams similar to the American SEAL team. So now you've taken our marksmen and top soldiers, and then train them to do spotting and sniping. And in the JTF - we train everyone to do all jobs - radio/comms, sniping, LMG, anti-tank... doesn't matter. JTF all roles are interchangeable. And top it off, over 30% of our Army grunts, have post-secondary education, and all who even enter the army, have to obtain good marks in high school. So our group of JTF soldiers are well educated, cross-roll trained, and are the best of our best. Now throw those kind of soldiers into our sniper program, we get a 3.5 km kill shot (2.18 miles).
And we're commenting on the fact that a JTF sniper made this shot with pure luck... hmmm.... and strange that the top 5 longest sniper shots in the world, 3 are Canadian... hmmmm
More here:
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/a-different-level-of-military-sniper/
