Gene Simmons, eat your heart out. It would seem that guided bullet technology is close to coming to fruition. I doubt that this technology will be able to perform miracles. You’ll still likely need to get the bullet somewhere in the neighborhood of a man sized target, with the bullet doing the real precision work. Any change in bullet’s trajectory is going to dissipate energy and reduce range, and you’d need range to be able to affect a large change in the point of impact. I’d say that for shooting people at ranges under 500 yards, this isn’t likely to replace plain, ordinary bullets anytime soon. I’d also imagine the bullets themselves will be rather pricy. I’d almost imagine you’d be better off using a small, portable mortar launcher, with a guided mortar. If you’re going to incur the cost for guidance, send the enemy something that goes boom.
What do you all think?
Typical results from a good sniper and comparable equipment on a stationary target at that range would be 10 inches or less.
The conditions aren’t clear so it could be a moving target which is much more impressive.
As for the guided mortar rounds… I’m with you there. I already have the boom part and I’m working on the software.
I don’t want guidance, I want damage. I want a device that works like the Star Trek Phaser set to “Disintegrate.”
I would accept results similar to opening the trunk on the movie “Repo Man”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGrXGEMOSo
Aaand now that movie is on my Amazon Watch List. You’d think that a movie from ’84 would be Prime eligible by now, but whatever.
It’s the robot needle spiders that I worry about.
“Could be off by 30 feet?” Yeah, it’s called trajectory, crank sights and carry on.
I would think the bugaboo would be how the bullet (sounds more like a small missile) tracks the target.
155mm Copperhead rounds (laser-guided artillery munition) follow a laser paint of the target. Unless these rounds do something similar, you’d have to acquire an accurate location, program it in (somehow) and ensure the target doesn’t move.
It sounds like arty on a micro scale to me … so what’s the point?!
Yes, they are laser guided by someone painting the target. The point would be that they are cheaper, can still take out small targets (perhaps up to light armor), and can be delivered by a two person sniper team rather than requiring a vehicle.
So…you write the targets full name on the bullet and send it on its way…..oh oh…the bullet with your name on it is finally coming true
A 1000 yards with a .338 is not that far, with a Cheytac .375 it’s actually kind of short (with the right bullet you can get a ballistic coefficient of 1.3+) The .375 is really a 2000 yard round. Be interested to see how it compares.
I suppose it would improve odds of one shot one kill enough to justify the rifle. The nice thing about the .308 is you can actually get a .5″ MOA semi-auto and not have to carry a second rifle, and they are effective out to 1200 despite what most people think. I’ve got a video showing people getting hits out to 1750 yards with a .308 (granted, I think it’s a 36″ plate – don’t remember for sure)
For high value targets, where you have short windows of opportunity it would be nice (say chief terrorist in and out of bunker/cave) You might not have time to call in artillery or airstrike but the guided bullet might do the job. Wonder if it leaves a trail? – that would suck.
Think of them as guided kinetic weapons. You wouldn’t even have to shoot them.
Drop one from a drone at 30k and the targets head explodes without a sound.
Or drop thousands, and have them form into an inescapable pattern on the way down.
Or have them play follow the leader. That would chew through almost anything.
What else?