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Countersniper system debuts in live-fire test
Submitted by: Warfighting Lab
Story Identification Number: 200251011530
Story by Phillip Thompson

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va.(May 10, 2002) -- The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory's Technology Division conducted a Limited Technical Assessment of a system designed to find snipers in urban battlespace May 8-9 at the Quantico live-fire ranges.

The Mobile Counter Fire System (MCFS) System is composed of sensors, weapon and a vehicle. It has combined counter-sniper technology and an automated fire control system that has a "man-in-the-loop." Sensors aboard the vehicle detect and analyze acoustic data from gunshots fired at the vehicle, determine the location of the shooter and automatically slew a weapon, such as a .50 caliber machine gun, to that position. A Marine operator then determines if he should return fire. The MCFS is being developed for HMMWV variants, with planned application to other vehicles.

A sniper from Weapons Training Battalion's Sniper School in Quantico, Va., aims in at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory's Mobile Counterfire System during tests conducted at Quantico May 8-9. The MCFS detects enemy sniper fire in urban terrain, then determines the shooter's location.
Photo by: Mr. Dean Kolberg

This week's live-fire test involved Marine Corps snipers firing live ammunition toward the vicinity of the MCFS, which was unmanned, said Maj. Lance McDaniel, Ground Combat Element section head in the Lab's Advanced Technology Division. This was the first such live-fire test of the system.

Over the two-day period, three snipers from Weapons Training Battalion's Sniper School here fired a total of about 150 rounds. The snipers each fired a series of shots at "target reference points," or stakes driven into the ground near the MCFS, McDaniel said. The MCFS sensors analyzed each shot and attempted to provide a solution that indicated from where the shot had originated. Snipers fired 7.62 rounds to either side and over the top of the vehicle to allow the system's full array of sensors to detect any particular shot.

The test produced mixed results, McDaniel said.

"It did great on the second day," he said, "But not as well on the first day. It sensed all the shots, but some solutions were more accurate than others."

The disparity in performance was a result of the acoustical characteristics of each shot, McDaniel said. A solution for a sniper's location tends to be less accurate the further the shot is from the system.