On the afternoon of the first full day of the 10th Annual Warrior Competition, following the impressive Opening Ceremony and Special Operations displays, the competitive events commenced with the Trijicon Top Shot, writes Bob Morrison.
Unlike events during the following week at KASOTC (King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center) which each involved five team members out of seven the Top Shot competition, sponsored by optical sights manufacturer Trijicon, required just one participant from each of the 40 teams representing 24 nations. Nominated by the teams themselves, the competitor was their best all-round shooter as this event required an operator who was not only highly skilled on pistol, assault rifle and shotgun but also able to hit maximum targets in the shortest time while under pressure.
Three bays of one of the KASOTC 25-metre shooting ranges were used for the event and competitors were split into pairs with one starting at each side to work through banks of targets and meet in the middle of the central bay for, hopefully, a final shoot-out against side-by-side Texas Star swinging targets. Non-competing team members plus any travelling supporters were allowed to pack the rails behind the bays to cheer on their guys and provide encouragement.
The previous evening – i.e. about 15 hours before the Opening Ceremony – the teams were invited to a social event (without alcohol of course, as KASOTC is a dry facility) to break the ice and to try to encourage them to mingle. This time (my third Warrior Competition) I asked to be allowed to attend the social, primarily as I wanted to meet as many Team Captains as possible to reassure those whose national policy is to preserve the anonymity of Special Forces and Special Operations personnel that although at times over the next week I might be sticking my camera in their faces I would fully respect the guys’ right not to be identifiable if this was desired.

To ensure targets dropped they had to be hit high but a clear strike on the white area was accepted if they did not fall [© BM]

Jandarma Commando moving to the middle bay – new camo is lighter than previous (see vest) and slightly resembles A-TACS AU [© BM]
On reaching the side wall of the outer bay the competitor then had to enter the centre bay and pick up a pre-positioned Remington combat shotgun, load it, engage a number of clays on a rack using a limited number of rounds, make the weapon safe, then progress to the next firing position. The shooter then had to move closer to the middle of the bay and engage a rack of five dropping plates with a 9mm Glock pistol before moving to the final firing position where Texas Star rotating falling plate targets had to be taken out.
The first added complication was that not only did the shooter have to drop all targets inside a given time to successfully finish the course, but another shooter was also racing in from the other side and the first one to drop the last target would win this round. The second complication was that rotating Texas Star… with an opponent almost breathing down one’s neck was it better to wait until the the plate oscillations reduced or to try to be quickest should the shots be taken while the targets were still moving?

An added complication was another competitor racing in from the opposite direction trying to outshoot you in front of spectators [© BM]

The final target was a five-plate rotating Texas Star – gravity spectaculary took over whenever each plate was dropped [© BM]
The winner of the 10th Annual Warrior Competition Trijicon Top Shot event was a member of the Kuwait National Guard team.
To be continued…
{ images © Bob Morrison }