The Navy SEAL Team 6 Weapons and Gadgets That Brought Down Osama bin Laden

From ABC News -

As Navy SEAL Team 6 closed in on its prey --  Osama bin Laden -- it likely entered the battle armed with the best weapons and technology available to soldiers anywhere in the world, a military expert and former Navy SEAL fighter told ABC News.

"The dogs of war were finally turned loose to do what they were designed to do," Richard Marcinko, a former Navy commander, told ABC News. And these "dogs" carry some serious firepower.

Although tactical details of Sunday's mission remain unconfirmed, ABC News spoke with a former Navy SEAL sniper to learn what equipment and tech toys SEAL teams usually use to take down a target.

"The organizations we're talking about have the resources to get any weapon systems they think are necessary to do the job, and they will bring [anything] they think will give them the greatest advantage in that moment," Richard "Mac" Machowicz, a former Navy SEAL sniper and the host of Spike TV's "Deadliest Warrior," told ABC News. "If they get it, and they like it, they'll use it."

The Blackhawk helicopters that carried them to the scene not only hold missiles and large caliber guns but provide a lookout platform.

"SEALs have developed the ability to send very accurate fire from helicopters," Machowicz said.

Those snipers would have available highly customized rifles tailored to that particular battlefield, he said. Machowicz told ABC News that when he was a sniper, he essentially had eight different sniper rifles tailored to different scenarios.

The SEAL's ground weapons were likely highly specialized too. "The mission dictates the target, the target dictates the weapons and the weapons dictate how they're used," Machowicz said. In the bin Laden scenario, the SEALs would have likely used short-barrel weapons -- such as a shortened M4 or AR-15 assault rifle -- that allow them to easily maneuver in and out of doors, hallways and vehicles.

 Machowicz speculates those guns used a large bullet type. "There are new weapons systems that fire the .45 caliber [round] that allows you to deliver a lot more kinetic energy, and you don't need to worry about overpenetration on the target."

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