Lying in undergrowth, a camouflaged British infantry soldier is seen looking down the telescopic sight of the new British-made Long Range L115A3 sniper rifle on Salisbury Plain, Warminster, England. Sniping means concealment, observation and assassination, a strategy the British are using more against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Swiss Lapua .338 inch rounds (8.59mm) travel at sub-sonic speeds of 936 metres/sec, finding its target accurately up to 1,100 metres. The rifle weighs 6.8kg with telescopic image-intensified scopes to 25x life size vision, made by Schmidt & Bender. Front-mounted 'suppressor' minimises the signature normally compromising snipers' position. At £23,000 each, a £4 million contract has been awarded to Accuracy International, to provide the Army, Royal Marines and RAF. The British say this is the best sniper rifle in the world.

A blog story about this assignment pictures is at"
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