How are sniper or pilot kills confirmed in times of conflict?
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As for pilots, with air-to-air kills there’s something called the gun camera. It’s not necessarily tied to the gun, but there is “tape” or solid state memory that records the HUD view. This is useful for training and post-mission debriefing. Also, with air to air kills you can also claim a “half” kill if you damage an enemy but can’t confirm the kill, or if you damage them and they escape or leave the fight.
With air-to-ground kills, to echo the other poster, there’s something called a “battle damage assessment” done after every airstrike done by a manned aircraft. It’s never done by the pilots themselves, it’s done by intelligence officers, usually via drone or satellite footage/reconnaissance obtained after or during the airstrike. To echo the other poster talking about the combat pilot in Vietnam, pilots are never told their “body counts” because it’d be terrible for morale.
The only missions where it can be very obvious how many people are dying are close air support missions done at lower altitudes in support of troops on the ground. Those can be low enough that the pilots can make out “results,” to be reserved in the wording.
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