European Best Sniper Team Competition 2022 Kicks Off in Hohenfels, Germany

Photo By Sgt. Christian Carrillo | Soldiers fire at targets to zero their rifles during the zeroing phase of the 2022 European Best Sniper Competition in the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, August 4, 2022. 36 sniper teams from 18 Allied and partner countries will compete head-to-head for the title of Best Sniper Team in Europe across eight days. (U.S. Army photo by Spc Christian Carrillo)  

HOHENFELS, BY, GERMANY

08.04.2022

Story by Spc. Christian Carrillo 

7th Army Training Command

HOHENFELS, Germany - The European Best Sniper Team Competition, hosted by the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC), begins Aug. 5, 2021, at 7th Army Training Command’s Hohenfels Training Area, Germany.

36 sniper teams from 18 Allied and partner countries will compete head-to-head for the title of Best Sniper Team in Europe.

“Our goal is to build the friendships of our partner nations with interoperability,” said Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Stegmeier, Match Director for the 2022 European Best Sniper Team Competition.

The competition is designed to challenge the competitors in various aspects of being a military sniper.

Many of the challenges constructed by JMRC are based on historical battles and events that involved military snipers.

“To each lane we’ve tied a historical piece,” Stegmeier said. “Mogadishu is our aerial shoot – historically it’s the ‘Black Hawk Down’ scenario. Shooters will shoot from a static and a strafing position in the aircraft, and then they’ll have to go to a downed pilot position, return fire to the enemy, and then bring the pilot back to a safe location. So it’s just tying a historical event to a lane and spreading our knowledge of the history.”

This year also marks the first time Soldiers from two different countries – one from the Pennsylvania National Guard and one from the Lithuanian Army – have competed side-by-side on the same team.

“Pennsylvania has a state partnership with Lithuania, so building the relationship and bringing in a co-team, if you will, for the sniper competition does leaps and bounds showing how us as partners can work together,” said Stegmeier.

The sniper teams will compete across eight days of events to include aerial shoots, moving targets, high angle shoots, trench warfare, unknown distance, stalks, night target detection, and a pistol course, according to Stegmeier.

“The sniper community is very small across all countries,” said Stegmeier. “So bringing them together, working together, the knowledge that we have from our different countries, different tactics, different weapons, how we employ ourselves, are all things we learn from.”

• Date Taken: 08.04.2022
• Date Posted: 08.05.2022 08:37
• Story ID: 426590
• Location: HOHENFELS, BY, DE