Mine is based largely on a book around Carlos Hathcock; perhaps my impressions are based on old strategy. My impression is that snipers need agility to get int

Mine is based largely on a book around Carlos Hathcock; perhaps my impressions are based on old strategy. My impression is that snipers need agility to get into position (i.e. being dropped off miles away to sneak into position unseen), and agility to change position if they've been spotted. I didn't think they were deployed in a squad large enough to take a head on firefight and preferred disengaging and repositioning over symmetric combat. That might be outdated, though. Wars have been urban of late and the "deploy behind enemy lines and extract" pattern might be a relic, or even the product of sensationalization. If snipers are rolling out in Humvees with a whole squad these days I can definitely see how weight would be much less relevant.