Posted on 10/03/2010 3:36:05 PM PDT by driftdiver
A sniper crouches near an open window and zooms in on his target, who sits a half-mile away. He peers through a scope and holds his breath, preparing to squeeze the trigger. But it’s windy outside, and he can't afford a miss. What to do?
Clearly, he needs a self-aiming gun. Fortunately, one should be available next year.
Using the One-Shot system, under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a new electro-optical system will calculate the ballistics for him, telling him where to aim and ensuring a perfect shot -- no matter the weather conditions.
Lockheed Martin won a $6.9 million contract this week for the second phase of DARPA’s One-Shot system, which will provide direct observations of a target, measure every variable that influences a bullet’s flight, and calculate the aim offset in a sniper’s rifle scope.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Of course...but this isn't for a 120mm main gun, either, but when you consider what would go into this, and how much miniaturization has taken place in the past 20-30 years, I'm surprised this hasn't appeared earlier. We've had scopes with laser range finders for some time. I'd think the biggest challenge to miniaturizing an Abrams fire control system to a rifle sized weapon would be the thermal imaging system...of course you would have a sniper, and not a gyroscopically stabilized turret so there's still some human factor involved.
Now what they need to do is make a smoothbore .50 with a fin stabilized, discarding sabot .30 dart with a muzzle velocity in excess of 5K fps. That would be the shiz.
They can do just about everything now except calculate the F/L, Target, and Midwinds- That will always remain an art. But it is always good to take the human out of the factor when possible.
I hope they add Jpoint/Docter style reflex dot optics on the sides of the tubes since they seem to be going semi-auto with precision weapons now.
LoL.....sadly true.
If it can return accurate fire from a surburban doing 70 mph down a pot hole filled road then by all means develop an deploy.
Working in concert with the boomerang sensor that detects rounds fired at the vehicle with the sensor.
I wouldn’t want to lug that pig to a hide through Indian country an wait 4 days to get a shot an then try to E&E my way back home with such a rig.
Make it the size of Ronnie Barretts BORS system an it may work....
All our comments are moot I suspect as DARPA sorts are pretty good techs.....
Of course. Provided one HAS instinct. Which I do not.
sure ya do ya just got to fine tune it Happy Hunting
Avery’s HOT. :)
i know- lol
EMP
Sure it can be made to work. They’ll probably use some laser emission to measure downrange winds.
And that’s where it will fail. As soon as he’s emitting something, the sniper has given up his #1 asset: his inability to be seen.
It also means that when the cute little widget breaks, the operator likely has no clue how to go “old school” and get the job done.
This is another example of a silly obsession with toys in our military procurement these days.
I’m not sure how a computer could compensate for varying wind speeds over different terrain at various distances.
No we don’t. Hunters rarely take shots at 500+ yards.
What hunters need to do is learn how to dope the wind and to do this, they need only shoot regularly in the wind.
ie, they need to get more practice than the 10 rounds to sight in their rifle before going hunting.
If they’re too lazy to learn how to dope wind, then they need to learn to stalk closer.
With a lidar-like setup, you could use a laser to read the wind effects at varying ranges out to the target, then compute the net:net effect on the bullet flight path.
If the winds are varying rapidly and significantly along the path, then there’s little else but luck that could put the round on target the first shot.
Here’s an example of laser wind-sensing technology for wind turbines, where they’re seeking to see wind velocities and directions at different heights above the ground. The downrange wind sensing is the same idea, just turned 90 degrees (more or less) off vertical, in a smaller package.
http://www.lidarwindtechnologies.com/
Concur.
This very system has been on board the M1A2 tank for a long time now. Wonder why it took so long.
I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I’ve been wondering how long before they add stabilizers. you know...like the electronic gizmos they put in high end binoculars nowdays. The next step after the self aiming rifle would be to install a heads up display in a visor so you can sniper shoot from the hip without actually sighting down the barrel...or from behind a berm without peering over the berm.
Since when does “need” have anything to do with it. If they make it, people will buy it.
I expect some day the “lasing”, or whatever method is used to detect wind, will be done via satellite or high flying UAV. Then the info will be sent to the sniper rifle.
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