DoD Wants Bullet That Can Change Direction After Being Fired

military.com ^ | 12-15-2014 | Stars and Stripes  |  by Matt Burke

[Citizen Zed]

New .50-caliber bullets that can change direction after they have been fired could soon make U.S. military snipers more deadly.

The EXACTO program — or Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance — is being developed by California's Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, LLC at the behest of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, according to a DARPA video posted on Youtube.

"The objective of the EXACTO program is to revolutionize rifle accuracy and range by developing the first ever guided small-caliber bullet," DARPA officials said in a July statement accompanying the video. "The EXACTO .50-caliber round and optical sighting technology expects to greatly extend the day and nighttime range over current state-of-the-art sniper systems."

The specially designed ammunition can change direction in midair.

How that is done remains a tightly held secret. The Defense Department and its related agencies declined to comment.

[Bratch]

It's all in the wrist.

[eartrumpet]

Oh a thought. What about a hollow point type design only with tunnels running to four ports at the back and a little mechanism of some sort to open and close the ports to affect the desired trajectory.

In the 80s when the big satellite dishes were the new rage, a friend was installing them. There was a big argument over solid or mesh dishes in windy areas and he said the research found the mesh dishes didn't let the wind thru after about 20 mph winds. I always remembered that and wonder how much wind would go down your hollow point. But let's get a huge grant and research it.

[ExGeeEye]

A SF novel I read once included a brief reference to a smart rifle-- the bullets themselves being "dumb", i.e. present-day conventional-- the firer pulled the trigger basically to designate the target, but the rifle held fire until it was properly aligned, so firer steady hold was not strictly necessary.

I believe it was The Peace War, but I could be mistaken.

Seems a bit more realistic than a self-guided or self-vectoring bullet.

[minnesota_bound]

It is called the EXACTO MUNDO round.

[Axenolith]

Wasn’t that actually ACME, under contract to Wile E. Coyote, Supergenius?

[Axenolith]

I’ll take that challenge, with a vest, Aegis Arc eyewear and a Mossberg semi auto with extended magazine tube...

There’s gonna be a LOT of spare parts lying around...

[Axenolith]

Remington makes a scope/rifle combo that does that now.

Was that book maybe Candle by John Barnes? There’s mention of that during some of the characters discussion of their time in the meme wars.

[AFreeBird]

Yea, but bullet shape (not a big 10’ parabolic dish) speeds... You’ve got high pressure at the nose, and low at the rear, right?

I was trying to think of a way to affect direction without servos and little wings. The KISS principle.

[wally_bert]

Here is the Youtube clip of the Army intro film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgdA00kZioM

This Sheridan used to sit at the old aviation museum in Charlotte. Not sure of where they put it when they moved.

http://tysonneil.smugmug.com/Military/M551-Sheridan-Tank/i-dpT8MxK/A

[backwoods-engineer]

The answer to the guided bullet was provided by the Gemini and Apollo programs. A conical projectile can control its direction by changing the position of an internal off-center weight. The capsules accomplished this with roll. Rolling the capsule 180 degrees could change "lift vector up" to "lift vector down", and the capsule could accomplish a cross-track maneuver, or even a climb.

A bullet is already spinning at hundreds of thousands of RPM, so all they have to do is synchronize the vibration of a little weight between the center axis and slightly off axis. The distance can be tiny if the weight is significant compared with the whole. A tiny peizo-electric actuator with a piece of 8-shot on it could do the trick. By adjusting the pulse width in time with the rotation (sensed with an accelerometer), and delaying the vibration to coincide with the angle corresponding to a desired direction, the bullet can change trajectory with no fins, no ports, nothing but a little weight, a little actuator, and some electronics that can stand up to 450,000 RPM rotation (no mean feat, that).

I've wanted to try to build one for years.

[backwoods-engineer]

Read my post #50.

[GenXteacher]

A bullet that was aimed right the first time doesn’t need it either.

[eartrumpet]

Unless the target moves after firing.

[ExGeeEye]

Since I never read that one...

Doesn’t mean the idea hasn’t been in more than one book :)

Or, in the case of Remington, in a (very expensive) product.

[Slings and Arrows]

[PLMerite]

The US Navy had a torpedo like that in the early days of WWII. Look up “circular shot.”

[NonValueAdded]

“Sure, next thing you know, they will make bombs that can think for themselves.”

Love, Sgt. Pinback /ultraObscure

[OldNewYork]

Weren’t these already used in Dallas, 1963?