Self-guided bullets to ‘hit target a mile away’
A new “super bullet” will be able to change its course midflight so it can accurately hit a target up to a full mile away, according to US government researchers.
The bullet, which is still in a prototype phase, uses tiny fins that allow it to rapidly adjust its path in flight.
It also has a built-in optical sensor to detect a laser on its target.
“Most bullets shot from rifles, which have grooves, or rifling, that cause them to spin so they fly straight, like a long football pass,” said Red Jones, who created the prototype with fellow engineer, Brian Kast.
“To enable a bullet to turn in flight toward a target and to simplify the design, the spin had to go,” Mr Jones said.
High-speed video
Engineers at Lockheed Martin‘s Sandia National Laboratories have hailed the new design as a breakthrough for the military.
“We have a very promising technology to guide small projectiles that could be fully developed inexpensively and rapidly,” said Mr Jones.
“The natural body frequency of this bullet is about 30 hertz, so we can make corrections 30 times per second.
“That means we can overcorrect, so we don’t have to be as precise each time,” according to Red Jones.
“Nobody had ever seen that, but we’ve got high-speed video photography that shows that it’s true.”
Jones and Kast came up with the idea while hunting. Sandia Laboratories is now looking for private investors to complete the round of testing.
‘Smart weapons’ for soldiers
It is not the first time that “smart weapons” have been designed with the United States and their troops in mind.
Unmanned drones have been controversially used by the CIA for decades, and US troops started using XM-25 semi-automatic weapons in 2010 in Afghanistan.
The X-25 weapons use laser range-finders to locate targets before highly specialized rounds explode at the exact location where they are hiding.
Channel 4 News special report and interactive map: Pakistan drone warfare