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Snipers rely on specialized training, accurized, high power rifles and quality optics to reliably hit targets that are often mere specks on the horizon.Here's What You Need to Remember: The technology does have a few downsides. If EXACTO {Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance} does use a laser designator to mark a target that laser is visible under the right circumstances, alerting those being targeted. Even worse, the laser beam will point directly to the the person lasing the target. The system will also need a long-lasting power supply, as a sniper may need to wait for hours for the opportunity to...

Sandia National Laboratories is seeking a partnership with a private company to commercialize a new guided bullet that its engineers have invented, according to the U.S. government lab, which is managed by Lockheed Martin. The Sandia researchers, Red Jones and Brian Kast and their colleagues, created a dart-like self-guided bullet for small-caliber firearms that uses laser guidance to hit targets more than a mile away. "We have a very promising technology to guide small projectiles that could be fully developed inexpensively and rapidly," Jones said. The prototype was built using commercially available components and the initial testing in computer simulations...

A new design for a self-guiding bullet could allow sharpshooters to accurately fire at targets a full mile away. The bullet, which is still in a prototype phase, is the brainchild of Sandia National Laboratories researchers Red Jones and Brian Kast. It is designed with built-in actuators and tiny fins that should allow it to rapidly adjust its path in flight. Designed with the military, law enforcement, and recreational shooters as potential customers, the bullet is four inches long and has an optical sensor embedded in its nose for the detection of a laser on its target, Sandia said in...