DARPA Self Correcting 50 Cal Sniper Ammo

[carbinemike]

This is unreal. I would have thought that the corrections onto target would have been gradual over the flight of the bullet but it looks drastic toward the end of flight. They are looking at hits at 2000m regardless of conditions. I saw several articles on this but I haven't seen when they expect it in the field. Since DARPA posted a Youtube video I'm guessing it has probably been in the field for awhile.

US military research agency DARPA says it is homing in on its long-term ambition of producing self-guided bullets, after staging a test in which a sniper was able to shoot at a target at a radically wrong angle, and yet still hit it perfectly.
“DARPA’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program recently conducted the first successful live-fire tests demonstrating in-flight guidance of .50-caliber bullets,” said the organization, which posted a recording of the trial on YouTube.
Currently, US Army snipers are expected to hit a target 600 meters away, nine times out of ten. But after a certain point, about a kilometer away, accuracy falls off sharply, even in perfect conditions. Besides, current technology simply does not allow snipers to easily estimate the impact of humidity and cross-winds on the bullet trajectory, meaning that even the best will often have to fire several bullets before they even get close – ruining the surprise factor, and placing themselves in danger of return fire. EXACTO promises a range of up to 2,000 meters, as well as a virtual indifference to conditions.

 

[John A.]

While I support our snipers to have the most up to date and technologicially advanced materials available, I am still a firm believer in good old fashioned marksmanship too.

I fear that this technology may make some next generation snipers complacent and lose their real edge as time goes on.

This is even hard to believe that it isn't a hoax.

 

[carbinemike]

I agree on the potential for degraded marksmanship skills.

If it's a hoax they fooled NBC, Washington Times and Breitbart.

 

[oli700]

I hope they don't give them to monkeys

 

[LAZY EYED SNIPER]

A REAL marksman will mark and destroy the "EXACTO" operator before the device computer has a chance to calibrate...

 

[GunnyGene]

DARPA has been working on this for a couple years. Here's the program page http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/TTO/Programs/Extreme_Accuracy_Tasked_Ordnance_(EXACTO).aspx

These are no doubt pretty expensive.

 

[MikeD]

Reminds me of this old movie..

Cool technology but is it worth the cost? The amount of research and cost of each projectile has to be obscene.

 

[Gunned down]

How can you be sure of a target you can't see

 

[MikeD]

My questions based on watching that short video a few times is this.

If the round is self correcting why is the aim point still to the right? Shouldn't the round hit the aim point at distance, and not an arbitrary target? Am I missing something? How does it know the intended target if the POI is different?

I would think it is using some type of laser guidance which would mean the poa and target would have to be one in the same.

 

[GunnyGene]

My questions based on watching that short video a few times is this.

If the round is self correcting why is the aim point still to the right? Shouldn't the round hit the aim point at distance, and not an arbitrary target? Am I missing something? How does it know the intended target if the POI is different?

I would think it is using some type of laser guidance which would mean the poa and target would have to be one in the same.

The primary function of the round is to compensate for unanticipated wind and other factors. The initial poa is the intended poi from the shooters point of view. If there is no en route deviation the round will follow a normal trajectory. It's intended for extreme long range - over 1000yds where such things as wind, spin drift, etc. have far more influence on trajectory than at shorter ranges.

 

[MikeD]

The only way I see this being effective is if the found hits the exact POA. What is it adjusting for if not the miscalculation of winds etc.? If the sniper cannot hold on target then there is not way for it to know the destination. I don't see how it can adjust for whatever and still allow for whatever manual calculations the shooter made for wind, spin, etc.. It has to know where it is going to know where to land.

If we have the technology to do this then what would the shooter have to make any manual adjustments at all, just point and shoot regardless of distance?

 

[GunnyGene]

The only way I see this being effective is if the found hits the exact POA. What is it adjusting for if not the miscalculation of winds etc.? If the sniper cannot hold on target then there is not way for it to know the destination. I don't see how it can adjust for whatever and still allow for whatever manual calculations the shooter made for wind, spin, etc.. It has to know where it is going to know where to land.

If we have the technology to do this then what would the shooter have to make any manual adjustments at all, just point and shoot regardless of distance?

Winds are not always constant between muzzle and target, and often there is no way for the shooter to compensate for that given a common flight time of several seconds. Other than that, I agree with what you said. It does seem to have very limited benefit, and may not end up in inventory for that reason, as well as cost or other considerations. There aren't many shooters that use a .50 anyway so a cost/benefit analysis would probably kill the program. Interesting experiment tho, and may have some application to other weapon systems.