The European Best Sniper Team Competition pits 45 teams of sharpshooters from many NATO Allies and partners against each other for seven days of gruelling and stressful tests of skill. In 2023, NATO's newest Ally Finland triumphed. For those familiar with Finnish history, this comes as no surprise.
Latvian and German snipers conceal themselves with ghillie suits during the 2023 European Best Sniper Team Competition.
Prepared in any scenario
The sniper competition was over, but the Finns didn't yet know they'd won.
Instead, the three-man sniper team stood at the end of a long line of rifles, coolly thumbing 7.62-millimetre bullets into magazines. The seven-day 2023 European Best Sniper Competition had pitted 45 sniper teams against each other in a series of challenges designed to test not just their accuracy, but their physical stamina, camouflage skills and their ability to think critically while on the move.
One such scenario, dubbed "1917", simulated the rigours of the First World War by making the snipers crawl under barbed wire and fight through trenches clogged with military-grade tear gas. Another, "Mogadishu", made snipers take long-distance shots from the bobbing deck of a Lakota scout helicopter before sprinting towards a simulated helicopter crash, where they needed to engage a series of targets at unknown distances.
Participants proved that it's not enough to be a good shot - snipers need to be strong, smart and capable of pushing through fatigue.
A Finnish Army sniper sends rounds downrange during the 2023 European Best Sniper Team Competition.
The last day of the event was a "friendly shooting" - a sort of field day for the 45 teams that participated in the competition. After seven days of high-stress shoots on land, in the water and from the unsteady deck of a helicopter, it was time to blow off a little steam.
The crisp morning air at Hohenfels Training Area in southern Germany was split with the loud crack of long rifles and the stranger pfft of rifles equipped with silencers. The snipers strolled down the firing line, trying out the rifles used by their NATO Allies and partners. The more casual atmosphere at the end of the event let the competitors relax a little, allowing them to test each other's gear, share some stories and jokes about the previous week, and strengthen the international bonds that are a cornerstone of NATO.
Forty-five teams of snipers from many NATO Allies and partners try each other's weapons during the 2023 European Best Sniper Team Competition.
The legacy of Finnish sharpshooting
Finnish snipers live in the long shadow of a short man. Ask any of them about Simo Häyhä and you'll get a knowing grin. Though slight in stature, the soldier known as the "White Death" was perhaps Finland's most lethal marksman during the Soviet invasion of 1939. An archival photo shows him standing in a white overcoat, smiling and squinting against the sun while holding a bolt-action rifle in mittened hands.
While the "Winter War" ended in 1940 with parts of Finland annexed by the Soviet Union, the invaders suffered staggering casualties for every inch of territory gained. The Finns managed to build a diplomatic relationship with the Soviet Union in the decades following the war, but veterans like Simo Häyhä never forgot how quickly their neighbour could turn on them.
Simo Häyhä stands with a rifle in the snow. (Photo: Finnish Military Archives)
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Finland began to revisit its longstanding policy of neutrality. It had long been a NATO partner, participating in military exercises and in NATO-led missions, maintaining a warm and cooperative relationship with the Alliance. But partner countries, unlike NATO Allies, are not covered by NATO's Article 5 "all for one and one for all" security guarantee in case of an armed attack - and Finland has a 1,340-km border with Russia.
Finland applied for full NATO membership in May 2022, and in April 2023, they became NATO's 31st Ally.
Ask the Finnish snipers how they feel about their new membership status, and they'll reply with characteristic deadpan: "It's good." Snipers tend to be taciturn; Finnish snipers, doubly so.
The Finnish Army sniper team strikes a pose after winning the 2023 European Best Sniper Team Competition.
During the sniper competition, the Finns managed to preserve the legacy of their famous forebear. They started strong but fell back to 5th place after Special Operations snipers from Greece seized first place on day 2. They spent most of the competition lurking just short of the podium, swapping positions with snipers from the US Army's 101st Airborne Division, while the Greeks stayed on top.
On the last day, though, the Finns scored top marks on an event that forced them to crowd onto a rubber raft and use the small boat as a transport and shooting platform. They racked up enough points to propel them to a deserved victory. It was a solid showing for NATO's newest member, and a performance that more than honours the country's tradition of effective sharpshooting. Somewhere, perhaps, Simo Häyhä was giving a mittened thumbs-up.
