MH-60M Black Hawk | Aerial Sniper

A Night Stalkers MH-60M Black Hawk helicopter trains with Critical Skills Operators (CSO) with the 1st Marine Raider Battalion (1 MRB) Marine Special Operations Team (MSOT) 8123.

The MSOT is training in vehicle interdiction skills i.e. swooping down in a helicopter to stop and search a vehicle on the road.

A CSO armed with a scoped rifle is situated in the starboard cabin doorway.

When using a helicopter as an aerial sniper platform a special slings arrangement may be attached to hardpoints on the aircraft into which the sniper's rifle is rested so to provide a stable shooting platform.

A sniper orbiting over an operation in a chopper not only provides accurate covering fire but, by having a birds eye view of an operation, also greatly enhances his team's situational awareness by spotting incoming threats, identifying changing atmospherics, pointing out squirters etc.

Delta Force snipers operated from Night Stalker Black Hawks during the Battle Of Mogadishu, 1993.