Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Smart Bullets

U.S. Army rifles that use
radio-controlled smart bullets

  • Weapon hailed as a game-changer that can fire up and over barriers and down into trenches
  • Soldiers will start using them in Afghanistan later this month
  The weapon's laser finder would work out how far away the enemy was and then the U.S. soldier would add one metre using a button near the trigger. When fired, the explosive round would carry exactly one metre past the wall and explode with the force of a hand grenade above the Taliban fighter.

Smart Bullet

Great.  First the Army gives everyone a black beret, and now an expert rifleman badge. .  Sheesh.

Cuzzin Ricky

11 comments:

DougM said...

Arm/fire transmitters for the enemy to use against our shooters to be available on-line in 3..2..1..
Yeah, I know they've already thought'a that; just makin' an observation on the nature of technology-based weapons.
(What? Countermeasures? I know nus-sing!)

Anonymous said...

Sounds expensive, I miss Napalm.

Casca

Chuck Martel said...

In my day, we only had rocks and sharpened sticks . . . .

Anonymous said...

The Paulie Shore axom states that there is an inverse relationship between one's desire to perform, and one's ability. The corollary is that those who most desire to run around au natural are those one least desires to see do so.

Casca

Anonymous said...

DOH! Wrong thread.

Casca

Anonymous said...

They are not radio controlled and only loosely qualify as bullets. Think of then as mini-grenades. They are preprogrammed and go off like a grenade after traveling a set distance. They can kill enemies behind cover and invisible to snipers that no marksman could ever hit. HC was showing this weapon years ago in development, it's now in the field for testing and our guys don't want to give them back!

AWM

Anonymous said...

Bullet my a**. That is the new 25mm GRENADE round for the XM25 grenade launcher being service-tested in A-stan as we speak. It designed to take the place of the old 40mm M203 we've used since 'Nam in the rifle squads. The 40mm will still be used but the 25mm is considered the GL of the future.

Pic and article here: http://www.army.mil/-news/2011/02/08/51518-army-wants-36-more-punisher-weapons-in-2012/

Now I can make out my Christmas list ...

- One Man Gang

Snackeater said...

It's actually called the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE)System. It is a direct-fire, optically-sighted, magazine-fed, semiautomatic, shoulder-fired, man-portable weapon system.

A laser rangefinder determines the range to the target, then programs the 25mm airburst projectile to detonate at that range; the distance the projectile travels before detonating is a function of the number of rotations of the projectile. The operator can also adjust the range by ±10m, enabling him to engage defilade targets.

It has a max effective range of 500m for point targets and 700m for area targets; the max range is 1100m.

Rounds for the weapon cost only about $25 each, and will completely ruin your day.

Atilla said...

That article was pure crap. As others have pointed out, they're not radio controlled. A radio is used to program its chip, but once it's fired, radio has nothing to do with it. The grenade knows how far it has traveled by counting the number of rotations. Its flight path cannot be adjusted.

Do they make a version for paintball?

I heard a while back that they are looking into sniper bullets that can be steered in flight. Haven't heard much about it lately.

Anonymous said...

Chuck, sharpen the stick!! What a thought, now I can poke them and whack them with the same stick.

Kim said...

"In my day, we only had rocks and sharpened sticks"

We would have killed for sharpened sticks. Bloody Americans with their high-tech weapons....

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