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U.S. Testing Israeli Gunsight System

March 17, 1989
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The U.S. Marine Corps is currently testing a new Israeli-designed televised gunsight monitoring system, which could revolutionize anti-terror warfare by enabling commanders to “see” through the gunsights of their individual sharpshooters.

Emmanuel Gil, president of Elbit, one of Israel’s most profitable defense companies, told reporters that the new Sniper-C3 (command, control and communications) system, which costs $100,000 per unit, is the first of its kind in the world.

The device consists of a small black box fixed atop a sniper’s gunsight, which transfers the image by cable to a nearby display transmitter, enabling the sharpshooter’s assistant to see exactly what the sniper himself sees.

It also transmits the image — complete with cross-hairs — to a commander some distance away, who can thus monitor and coordinate the aim of five independent sharpshooters.

In the September 1972 Munich Olympics tragedy, an 11-member West German sniper team fired at seven terrorists but hit only four of them in their first volley. That allowed the remaining three to throw grenades that killed the Israeli athletes.

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