Posted on 10/04/2010 3:40:57 AM PDT by Doogle
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 ...
This exact technology figured large in Stephen Hunter's latest Bob Lee Swagger novel, ISniper.
Ha! I see it all the time at 100 yards! It's not unusual to see two wind flags 10 feet apart blowing in opposite directions. One range I shoot seems to have a dividing line down the middle. All flags on the left half of the range will blow in one direction and all flags on the right half will blow in the other direction.
They still have 600 yard military rifle matches - not necessarily associated with the military, but the shooters use military rifles such as M-14, M-16, Garand, etc. My friend in Ohio has competed in this.
They use open sights, and IIRC, shoot at those distances from the prone position. I’ve shot 200 yard matches - we shot standing, kneeling, and prone.
Seems like the only branch that has maintained standards is the Marine Corp.
There is a good one, and I’ll bet you know the answer.
The Marines only break things! They have no requirement to fix what they were ordered to break.
On a more serious note, the Air Force aircraft electronics fixers are basically doing the same. Remove and replace rather than fix what is broken. You replace a box rather than fix the box. It is faster, and the box gets fixed at a depot, but you are not using your electronics training very much and it becomes a lost art.
Pretty hard anyway to fix micro electronics with a sledge hammer and a soldering gun.
It takes care of that by launching multiple smoke grenades, which land every 50 yards between the shooter and the target.
Mark
“measure EVERY variable that influences a bullet’s flight”
EVERY variable? Just how do they plan to do that?
post #19
Even though I was in the Army at the time, I had the same feeling in 1998 when the Naval Academy stopped teaching celestial navigation.
Decapitating Angry Religion of Peace Adherents
How long ago?
“All ready on the left? All ready on the right? All ready on the firing line! Shooters, remove ramrods! With a paper cartridge and one round, load! Prime your musket!...”
That's nothing! I can do that. Could you hit something at 600 yards without a scope? That's more of a challenge.
You didn’t read the article. It clearly states that it does account for the wind.
Sledge hammers broke boards. We used rubber mallets on the KY-3.
Some form of Doppler radar is probably used to get wind speeds and directions downrange.
Mirage can raise havoc at those ranges too.
Gunner
That's nothing! I can do that. Could you hit something at 600 yards without a scope? That's more of a challenge.
National match course of fire in the 60s and 70s. Ranges were 200 yards, 300 yards, and 500 hundred or six hundred yards (depending on the range). Total of 50 rounds. Using the 5V targets for a max possible score 0f 250. Personal best was 247-15 V. So yes, you can hit targets at 600 yards with iron sights.
Methinks a line of smoke puffs would alert the target and provide a "connect-the-dots" arrow pointing right back at the sniper.... :^)
Real snipers (well, the spotters) look at grass, trees, water ripples and blowing sand along the whole trajectory and factor that into the shot. I don't think our image recognition technology is up to that ability yet. However, this system would basically automate 80% the connection between a ballistics chart ("there's an app for that"), the current conditions, and the scope.
I remember they were already doing pluck-and-chuck in satellite trucks in the 80s. Of course that’s line-level. After that the equipment goes up the maintenance chain until someone fixes it or decides it’s dead.
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