As measurements go, 7.62mm isn't very much. Nor is 800 metres - only twice around a running track after all. But imagine that you're on patrol in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains or the back streets of Fallujah - an enemy sniper is going to be very hard to spot at 800m. And the 7.62 calibre bullet from his Russian-made rifle will cover that distance in less than a second. The main giveaway is the noise the weapon makes when fired, but a single shot is near-impossible for troops to identify at range and in the heat of combat. Electronics may be the solution to the sniper problem. Qinetiq North America has developed a family of compact sniper detection systems, known as Ears, built around a lightweight acoustic sensor. Ears provides bearing and dis- tance information less than a tenth of a second after a shot rings out. The system works over 360°, is not confused by background noise and even functions inside vehicles travelling at more than 50mph. The US Army refers to it as the soldier wearable acoustic targeting system (SWATS) and already uses the technology in Afghanistan and Iraq. The system has also been evaluated under the UK Ministry of Defence's vehicle technology integration demonstrator program (VTID). Other acoustic gunshot detection systems are in service within Nato and were successfully deployed in Bosnia and Kosovo. But the equipment is relatively bulky, needs big power supplies and can take up to 30 minutes to set up.
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