I’ve done several posts on battle ranges and how and why they differ in various wars. Other bloggers have also addressed the subject either directly or indirectly. One is Sven Ortmann, a German blogger who specializes in international defence issues. In a recent post on Battlefield Visual Images he quotes and Israeli soldier on ranges:
Officers and experts from NATO countries were discussing anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), their merits and their optimum range. The Milan system had a range of 2 km while a couple other systems had ranges of about 4 km.Finally an Israeli guest gave a comment. He reminded everyone that they would be happy if they had more than a single kilometre visual range on a battlefield because dust, smoke from fires and smoke from WP shells would be omnipresent.
On the other hand please take a look at Michael Yon’s continuing coverage of the battle for Kandahar, where you can view the terrain that is typical of the Afghan theater and get some idea why the infantry fighting ranges there are so long. I looked at a study on this earlier, compared it to the Civil War, and added some more thoughts a week later.
UPDATE: The Times of London is reporting an incredible long-range shot by a British sniper. Corporal Craig Harrison of the Household Cavalry killed two Taliban at a distance of over a mile and half.
The distance to Harrison’s two targets was measured by a GPS system at 8,120ft, or 1.54 miles. The previous record for a sniper kill is 7,972ft, set by a Canadian soldier who shot dead an Al-Qaeda gunman in March 2002.
Leave a Reply