Norway wins first place in USAREUR-AF’s European Best Sniper Competition

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - A Norwegian army sniper team from 1st Armored Battalion was named the winner in the 2025 U.S. Army Europe and Africa European Best Sniper Team Competition, in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Nov. 22. A Latvian sniper team took second place and the team from Greece placed third.

The Norwegian sergeant and lance corporal 1st class earned 463 points demonstrating mastery across all events. The Latvian team received 429 points, with acknowledgements of their speed and stealth in the stalking lanes. Greece scored 383.5 points, earning recognition for their long-range engagement and performance during the stress shoot.

"It's been a great week competing here and competing against all these other nations with lots of challenges," the Norwegian lance corporal 1st class said. "It's been fun meeting new challengers, going to new ranges, trying new things and being challenged in new ways we haven't been before."

The Norwegian sergeant said that it was nice to go somewhere else and see that what they train for back home works in different places and other environments.

"It's a testament to the fact that we're doing something right in our home unit," he said.

The 7th Army Training Command hosts this annual competition at its Grafenwoehr or Hohenfels training areas to build military readiness through realistic and challenging training scenarios, foster military partnership and esprit de corps, and promote NATO interoperability with allied and partner nations.

The competition had 35 teams of two service members each from 22 countries, competing in 16 sniper skill-level tasks over six days of scored activities.

Participating countries included Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.

"You are the best that each of your nations and organizations has to offer, and you represented them incredibly well," said U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Fedorisin, the 7ATC's senior enlisted leader and the speaker at the competition's awards ceremony. "You have all directly contributed to interoperability across the continent. Events like these provide our countries with the opportunity to appreciate each other's capabilities and culture while fostering esprit de corps and sharing knowledge across the greater sniper community. This is more important now than in the last few decades, as we have multiple conflicts raging across the globe that are directly impacting all of us."

Fedorisin went on to describe the modern battlefield as evolving faster than at any point in history and emphasized that, to remain survivable and lethal, tactics, techniques, procedures and equipment needed to evolve.

This year's EBST took place late in the year to add the realistic challenge of the ever-changing winter weather in Bavaria, and the German training area received snow and below-freezing temperatures.

"The weather this week was rough," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Terry Tillis, 7ATC commander, when addressing the teams. "You guys endured a ton of stress on the body and your equipment. Thank you for coming out and competing."

Throughout the week, contest officials evaluated participants on doctrinal sniper tasks like marksmanship, shooter/spotter team communication, land navigation and target engagement with a variety of weapons.

Competitors tested their abilities to engage targets of known and unknown distances using cold-bore shots and clean-bore shots. They also engaged targets while moving at varying speeds and distances using alternate firing positions, to include a moving platform, elevated or obstructed positions, and a chemical environment.

"Each team brough a unique perspective and unparalleled professionalism," said U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. "Titus" Antia, EBST match president and member of the Warhogs Maneuver Observer/Coach-Trainer Team at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center. "We recognize the skills, endurance and dedication of the elite teams who battled over the past grueling days. They navigated complex scenarios, demonstrated mastery in precision marksmanship and exhibited tactical expertise that sets the standard for our allied forces."

On the final day of the competition, only the top 10 teams competed in two final events: a stalking lane and a final shooting challenge. In addition to the top three finalists, these included a second Latvian team, the U.K., Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France and Italy.

U.S. Soldiers from U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, the 21st Theater Sustainment Command and V Corps served as competition cadre to assist 7ATC with facilitating the competition.

The 7th Army Training Command is the U.S. Army's largest overseas training command that provides high-quality, realistic training for USAREUR-AF forces, as well as multinational allies and partners.

About SETAF-AF

U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) prepares Army forces, executes crisis response, enables strategic competition and strengthens partners to achieve U.S. Army Europe and Africa and U.S. Africa Command campaign objectives.

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