Poland celebrated 25 years of regaining freedom last month, and many head of states, including the US president Barack Obama, took part in the official events. At this time, it was finally possible to organize a conference that attracted numerous experts and scientists in the security field.

Thanks to the support of the Military Institute of Armament Technology in Zielonka, and the newly-formed Society of Security Experts of the Republic of Poland (comprising ex-operators and soldiers), the first international conference on national security called “Sniper 2014 – Special Tactics and the National Security” was organized near Warsaw. In this event, only operators and soldiers could take part. Many guests from the US, Great Britain, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic and Italy were present.

In addition to the conference, a two-day workshop was organized. The aim was to present the recent research in the field of ballistics as well as new approaches to programming. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Lyman Hazelton, former NASA employee and MIT specialist. Nowadays, he is working to improve work of snipers. He’s also a creator of some state-of-the-art programming. His talk was on a “New Approach In Creating Ballistic Programming for Snipers.”

Here is a list of other lecturers:

• Prof. Jerzy Ejsmont – Telescopic sight for a sniper.
• Insp. Dr Rafal Batkowski and Second Lieutenant Dr. Cezariusz Sonta – Snipers in police force – legal aspects.
• Wojciech Goryca – The development of the Institute training section.
• Richard Maska – Snipers in armed forces of the Czech Republic.
• Mark Anderton – Sniper Modernization
• Major Roman Poplawski – Sniper Training in Land Forces.
• Michal Pycio – Police support sniper – a plan to optimize sniper training in the Ministry of the Interior.
• Some representatives of the Institute – capacity of the Institute in the field of sniper ballistics.

The aim of the conference was to share experiences, talk about common problems and the future of the profession in all national army structures such as Special Forces, land forces and Military Gendarmerie, as well as other forces where snipers work – police, boarder guards, the Internal Security Agency.

This type of event is a great opportunity to think about what science can offer those who have practical experience. This job is not anymore only about good hiding places and camouflage. If you want to be a professional sniper, you need to learn mathematical calculations and ballistic approaches that allow one to shoot precisely even from 2000 meters. This cannot be done without advanced calculations, possible thanks to ballistic computers. Some might ask if there is still a place for a sniper in all this. But of course, it’s the human being that adjusts the angle to crosswind, aims and pulls the trigger.

We Poles can be proud of our freedom and the creativity of the generation that has grown in it. This event is proof of that, as it is not easy to gather in one place such eminent scientists and experts to combine their knowledge and experience. The organizers hope for the conference to become a regular event and create a bridge between the world of science and snipers.

Thanks for listening,

Naval