Anti-Material Rifles are similar in form and appearance to modern sniper rifles, though they are usually more powerful than is normally required for neutralising an enemy combatant, and can operate at a greater range. These weapons can be used for counter-sniping, destroying explosive stocks (from a safe distance) or against enemy radar installations, communication equipment, parked aircraft, fuel storage facilities, vehicles or personnel.

Precisely six years ago, in April 2004, Anti-Material Rifles (AMR) had caught the attention of the media for a different reason. Denel, a South African arms supplier who had been contracted to supply Denel NTW-20 AMR was blacklisted for having paid kickbacks to secure the deal.

An AMR is designed for use as the name suggest against military equipment or material rather than traditional combatants (personnel). In American parlance, they are clubbed as Special Application Sniper Rifle (SASR) or Hard Target Interdiction (HTI). AMR are similar in form and appearance to modern sniper rifles and can often serve in that role, though they are usually more powerful than is normally required for neutralising an enemy combatant, and can operate at a greater range. These weapons can be used for counter-sniping, destroying explosive stocks (from a safe distance) or against enemy radar installations, communication equipment, parked aircraft, fuel storage facilities, vehicles or personnel. In the Gulf War, .50 calibre sniping rifles had been used to even damage the artillery guns.

AMRs and the large calibre sniping rifles appear almost similar. The main design consideration of a sniping weapon is longer in range and accuracy, whereas AMRs are designed for damage and penetration. The two roles, however, tend to overlap to some extent.

Background & usage

The origin of the anti-materiel rifle goes back to the First World War, when the first antitank rifles appeared. One of the first designs to be offered was the Austria’s Steyr AMR. It fired a saboted fin-stabilised round that could penetrate 40mm of armour plate with considerable secondary fragmentation behind the plate. Although it opened many people’s eyes to the potential of AMRs, the Steyr has been essentially overtaken by designs using more readily available rounds.

The concept behind their employment is somewhat different from conventional sniper operations. AMR is to be employed against hardened targets at extreme ranges. This concept requires a different state of mind and training than normal systems. AMRs have been proposed to be used:

• Against communication systems, radar systems, command systems, missiles, crew served weapons, aircraft, etc.
• Against APCs, future anti-armour platoons will have an AMR squad which can engage lighter AFVs and free the ATGW crews to deal with the Main Battle Tanks.
• Against helicopters or to “peel” reactive armour from tanks to make them more vulnerable to other weapons. In Croatia, AMRs were vital elements of night operations since they were needed to destroy tank-mounted armoured thermal imagers.
• To “snipe” at exposed tank commanders, easily defeating any body armour they are likely to have.
• For remote explosive ordnance disposal. Special disrupter rounds filled with water, aerogel or foam could be developed for this role.
• To attack parked aircraft and other soft targets from a distance. Such Special Forces applications may require HE-I rounds rather than AP.

In general, anti-materiel rifles are chambered for 12.7x909mm NATO (.50 BMG), 12.7x108mm Russian or even 14.5x 114mm Russian and 20mm cartridges. The large cartridges are required to be able to fire projectiles containing usable payloads like explosives, armour-piercing cores, incendiaries, or combinations of these, as found in the Raufoss Mk211 projectile. Due to the considerable size and weight of AMR and other support equipment, the squad operates in teams having two or three members.

International development status

One of the popularly designed AMR is the South African NTW 20. The NTW 20/14.5 is one of the few firearms in existence that allows the changing of the calibre without completely disassembling and reworking the weapon. Switching between the two calibres of the NTW (20mm and 14.5mm) requires changing the bolt, barrel, sighting gear and magazine. A third variant, the NTW 20x110 has also been developed, but is not designed for barrel calibre switching. Calibre switching the NTW 20/14.5 can be accomplished simply in the field without specialised tools. This weapon can be broken into two manloads and offers the user the choice of 14.5x114mm (Russian), .50 Browning or 20x83.5mm or 110mm MG151 ammo. It can also be moved as an assembled weapon for “shoot and scoot” operations.

Some other well known AMR are; UK’s Accuracy International AW 50/F .50 Browning Machine Gun(BMG) (12.7x99mm NATO), US Barrett M 82A1/107 (.50 BMG (12.7x99mm NATO) and McMillan TAC-50, Hungary’s Gepard (.50 BMG with 12.7x99 NATO, 12.7x108mm (.50 Russian) & 14.5x 114mm Russian, Austria’s Steyr IWS 2000 (15.2 proprietary APFSDS), Serbia’s Zastava M93 .50 BMG (12.7x99mm NATO) and 12.7x108 (.50 Russian). The Barrett .50 is not accredited with the world’s longest range kill as that achievement goes to the McMillan TAC-50 bolt action sniper rifle. The TAC-50 does however fire the same ammunition, the .50 cal BMG cartridge. During the conflict in Afghanistan in 2002, a Corporal of the Canadian Forces fired his McMillan TAC-50 to kill an insurgent at a range of 2,430 metres (7,973 feet) or just over 11/2 miles away. It is a record for the longest sniper kill in history.