Where's the Sniper?(International Edition; TECHNOLOGY)(countersniper technology)

Byline: Benjamin Sutherland

Defense contractors are developing ways of locating hidden sharpshooters a few moments after they pull the trigger.

Making decisions in battle, Prussian military strategist Karl Von Clausewitz wrote two centuries ago, is akin to making life-or-death choices "in a mere twilight" with one's surroundings shrouded by the "effect of a fog or moonshine." In today's military jargon, it's called "poor situational awareness." Soldiers under fire express the idea with a simple question: where exactly are these bullets coming from? In urban battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq, where locating a shooter by ear can be difficult amid the din of traffic and gunshot echoes, sniping has proved to be an effective tactic against soldiers from the United States and elsewhere. In both places, insurgents "had the run of things until we got smart," says John Plaster, a former major in the U.S. Army Special Forces and author of a sharpshooting manual and two histories of sniper warfare.

Getting smart means deploying countersniper technology. A handful of defense contractors have been developing sensors and computer systems that can locate shooters moments after they pull the trigger. Since many systems are in advanced development stages and have been tested in limited battlefield conditions, effectiveness is hard to quantify. But by many accounts, enemies tend to see countersniper gear as an infuriating and destabilizing turn of events.

The principles are straightforward. Since a rifle bullet flies faster than sound, precision microphones can detect its miniature sonic boom and calculate the projectile's origin. The sound of the muzzle blast, which arrives an instant later, provides additional data on the bullet's trajectory. In a few seconds, soldiers are informed with an audio alert of the shooter's direction, distance, elevation and, with some systems, type of weapon.

Police now use bullet-tracking technologies to help monitor 33 U.S. cities. (A dozen microphones, networked to a computer, can gather intelligence over three square kilometers. In all, about 250 square kilometers are monitored in this way.) For military applications, however, the goal is to help soldiers neutralize attackers. Many systems--including the PDCue, a sniper-location system made by AAI Corp. in Hunt Valley, Maryland--display location information visually on vehicle computer monitors or electronic devices carried by individual soldiers. Some systems, including Boomerang, made by BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Massachusetts, automatically direct weaponry--typically vehicle-mounted machine guns--to aim at shooters. (Conventional rules of engagement require that a soldier pull the trigger.) About 5,000 units have been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.