Since 2004, the A-10 has been the most requested ground-support aircraft in Afghanistan. Iraq saw similar A-10 use. Troops from all nations quickly came to appreciate the unique abilities of this 1970s-era aircraft that the U.S. Air Force had wanted to eliminate. The Air Force sought to do this gradually, when there was less work for A-10s. In 2011, the Air Force announced it would retire 102 A-10s, leaving 243 in service. Opposition from the Army and Congress halted that. That was not the first, nor the last retirement effort. Until 2020, the Air Force kept at it, and many feared it would revive its efforts to eliminate the A-10. That does not appear to be the case this time.
The basic A-10 is a 1960s design, so the new additions are quite spectacular in comparison. New communications gear has also been added, allowing A-10 pilots to share pictures and videos with troops on the ground. The A-10 pilot also has access to the Blue Force Tracker system, so that the nearest friendly ground forces show up on the HUD Head-Up Display when coming in low to use the 30mm cannon. The A-10C could now use smart bombs, making it a do-it-all aircraft for ground support.
The A-10 is a 23-ton, twin-engine, single-seat aircraft whose primary weapon is a multi-barrel 30mm cannon originally designed to fire armor-piercing shells at Russian tanks. These days, most of its 1,174 30mm rounds are high-explosive. The 30mm cannon fires 363-gram 12.7-ounce rounds at the rate of about 65 per second. The cannon usually fires in one- or two-second bursts. In addition, the A-10 can carry up to 7 tons of bombs and missiles. These days, the A-10 goes out with smart bombs, GPS-guided and laser-guided, and 306 kg Maverick missiles. It can also carry a targeting pod, enabling the pilot to use high-magnification day/night cameras to scour the area for enemy activity. Cruising speed is 560 kilometers per hour, and the A-10 can slow down to about 230 kilometers per hour. In Afghanistan, two drop tanks were often carried to extend the aircraft's fuel capacity and maximize airtime over the battlefield.
New types of ammunition have emerged to equip 21st-century Western armies, creating a new, larger, better-trained, and better-armed army of snipers. This is partly due to the many new weapons, bullets, and accessories driving this sniper renaissance, and new records keep getting set. Some of these new records were more a matter of chance than intent. The most recent November 2016 example of that was a 1,800-meter shot by a British SAS commando sniper in northern Iraq. An SAS team was conducting a reconnaissance and surveillance mission for Iraqi troops to obtain an accurate view of what the Iraqis would be advancing into as they made their way towards Mosul. The SAS spotter saw a group of ISIL Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant gunmen in a village some 1,800 meters away and noted that the ISIL men seemed to be shouting at a group of women and children. It will never be known what exactly was going on out there, but it was probably ISIL rounding up civilians to be human shields against air attack. The civilians had learned to avoid this sort of thing, especially since if the target was deemed important enough, air strikes would ignore human shields and bomb anyway. The ISIL men were not only shouting at the fleeing civilians but had raised their assault rifles and were apparently preparing to kill the women and children. The SAS sniper quickly sorted it out and decided it was, literally, worth a shot. The SAS man was using an L115A rifle and the new, since 2003, favorite among snipers, the 8.6mm .338 Lapua Magnum round. The Lapua had already proved it could do very accurate shots at very long distances, but 1,800 meters was a few hundred meters beyond what the rifle was certain to hit. But this was a case where it was taking a shot or watching the women and kids get slaughtered. So, the SAS man took the shot, which not only hit the target, the guy who seemed to be in charge, but the bullet passed through that man, hit another ISIL gunman, then ricocheted off a wall and hit a third gunman. A later investigation ascertained that all three ISIL men died; at least one of them lingered a while. The remaining ISIL gunmen scattered, and the civilians got away safely.
Normally, details of commando operations are kept secret for a long time, usually to protect tactics and methods. But exceptional incidents like this are especially demoralizing to the enemy. Before details of this incident were released, various distorted descriptions of what happened were circulating among ISIL members and local civilians; few people knew who actually did it and how. Publicizing who carried out a particular mission has proven useful because it sets the record straight and scares the enemy more than distorted, gossipy versions. There have been a growing number of these spectacular sniper shots, and publicizing the details has caused the enemy, even homicidal Islamic terrorists, to adjust their tactics and to operate more slowly and with less confidence. Fear is an effective weapon, and skilled snipers bring a lot of it to the battlefield.
Then there is the anger factor, as during an incident earlier in 2016, another SAS sniper used a new Israeli 8.6mm sniper rifle to kill an ISIL instructor who was about to demonstrate to his students how to behead prisoners by using a live victim. The British sniper was 1,200 meters away and managed to hit the ISIL instructor in the head at that range. The head shot caused the skull to sort of explode, which apparently made an impression on the ISIL recruits, especially after it was revealed that the SAS sniper was using a new Israeli-designed rifle equipped with a suppressor. This is not a silencer, but it greatly reduces the rifle's flash and sound. For long-range shots, this means those on the receiving end have a very difficult time telling where the shooter is, and that often causes panic. The SAS sniper in Iraq also used a suppressor for the same reason. If a sniper shot kills someone near you and there is never any apparent sound of firing, the incident is scarier still. For Islamic terrorists in general and ISIL in particular, letting it be known that some new Israeli tech was involved makes the enemy become particularly agitated, enraged, and dismayed.
The Israeli rifle involved during the Syrian incident was the Dan .338, which was introduced in 2014 and was designed by an Israeli firm for the Israeli military. The manufacturer expected to sell many to foreign police and military organizations, and the British, who have been using .338 rifles for nearly a decade, were apparently giving the Dan .338 some field testing. The Dan .338 weighs 6.9 kg and, with a scope and a loaded ten-round magazine, about 9 kg. This bolt-action, adjustable-stock weapon has a 737 mm barrel. The design is well thought out, reflecting the influence of many Israeli snipers who contributed ideas and opinions to the designers.
The British were already fans of the 8.6mm cartridge. Starting in 2007, the British Army began replacing most of its 3,000 7.62mm L96A1 sniper rifles with a modified version that used the 8.6mm Lapua Magnum round. Snipers in Iraq, and especially Afghanistan, had been calling for a smaller long-range round because they found the 12.7mm rifles too heavy. The Lapua Magnum round has an effective range of about 1,500 meters, about 50 percent greater than the 7.62mm standard NATO round. Like most long-range rounds, if the weather is clear and the winds are calm, you can hit targets farther away.
The 8.6mm round entered use in the early 1990s and became increasingly popular with police and military snipers. Dutch snipers have also used this round in Afghanistan with much success and had over a decade of experience with these larger-caliber rifles at that point. Recognizing the popularity of the 8.6mm round, Barrett, the pioneer of 12.7mm sniper rifles, released a 7 kg version of its rifle chambered for the 8.6mm.
The 8.6mm also began setting records. Between 2009 and 2015, the distance record for sniper kills was held by a .338 rifle. In 2015, that record was broken by two Australian snipers in Afghanistan using M82A1 12.7mm rifles. In a coordinated shot at a Taliban leader 2,800 meters away, the two snipers fired simultaneously, and six seconds later the Taliban chieftain fell dead. It will never be known which of the two shots got him. The victim would not have heard the shot; the rifles were so far away, and the bullet was traveling faster than the speed of sound. About two seconds later, anyone with the dead Taliban man would have heard the two shots, but faintly, as the shooters were so far away, nearly three kilometers.
The previous record shot was made in November 2009 by a British sniper, Corporal Craig Harrison, who killed two Taliban in Afghanistan, at a range of 2,620 meters. He did this with an L115A3 rifle firing the 8.6mm Lapua Magnum round. Before that, the record was held by a Canadian soldier, Corporal Rob Furlong, who dropped an al-Qaeda gunman at 2,573 meters in 2002, also in Afghanistan, with a 12.7mm rifle. These weapons perform well at 2,000 meters or more but weigh twice as much as the 6.8 kg 8.6mm rifles.