It wasn't so very long ago that the American military sniper community was what could best be described as "closed minded" when it came to semiauto sniper rifles. During this happy period following the end of the Cold War, both the Army and Marines were quite content with their Remington 700-based bolt-action sniper rifles. Back then, semiauto sniper rifles were scoffed at and derided as "only being suitable for poorly trained conscripts from the East."

ArmaLite's Super SASS is an AR-10-based 7.62mm sniper rifle originally developed for military use.

However, combat experience in both Afghanistan and Iraq quickly demonstrated the usefulness of a self-loading 7.62mm sniper rifle, especially if it was able to be easily configured to meet specific mission requirements. It wasn't long after that trials were held to select a new Semi-Automatic Sniper System, or SASS, which was subsequently adopted by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.

ArmaLite Inc. was one of several companies that developed and submitted an entry for the XM110 competition. Although ArmaLite's entry was not selected by the military, the company continued development and introduced what it calls the Super SASS in .308 Winchester at the 2006 SHOT Show for commercial sales. As to be expected, this new model is based upon ArmaLite's well-known AR-10 action. Mated to this is a stainless steel match barrel. This has a 1:11 1/4-inch twist, optimizing it for use with 175-grain and similar-weight projectiles.

Mounted to the muzzle of the heavy-profile barrel is an A2-type flash suppressor. To further enhance accuracy, the match barrel is free-floated via a robust aluminum handguard system. The handguard itself is heavily ventilated to both reduce weight and allow air to easily pass over a hot barrel. In order to allow mission-essential gear to be easily mounted, the rail incorporates four 1913 rails at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock.

The Super SASS features a free-floated 20-inch match barrel, rail system and flash suppressor and is set up to accept a sound suppressor.

One extremely important piece of equipment for the modern sniper is a sound suppressor. To allow one to be easily mounted, ArmaLite has fitted the Super SASS with an Advanced Armament fast-attach suppressor mount. This system allows a sound suppressor to be installed or removed with just one hand in less than three seconds.

Live in a place where sound suppressors are not legal, or just don't want to take the time to submit the paperwork? Not a problem: ArmaLite has a dummy suppressor that is an exact copy of the real deal for display purposes. That said, suppressors are inexpensive and the paperwork relatively painless, so I suggest getting the real thing.

For reliable operation using a sound suppressor, the Super SASS features a two-position gas valve.

As shooting through a suppressor can upset the happy balance of a direct gas system's Chi, ArmaLite specifically addressed this issue. Its solution was to design an adjustable gas system specifically for this application. Now, adjustable gas systems on self-loading sniper rifles are nothing new. Both the Soviet SVD and Yugoslav/Serb M76 sniper rifles incorporate adjustable gas systems.

However, they are unusual on Stoner's direct gas system outside of competition rifles. That said, ArmaLite designed a beefy steel gas block and mounted it via two steel crosspins. The traditional Stoner gas tube attaches to the rear of this via robust threaded fittings. At the front of the gas block is a two-position adjustment knob that can be rotated to Normal or Suppressed settings.