In case you haven’t seen it, Sandia National Labs is working on a self-guided bullet for small arms that can hit targets a mile away. Kinda like a small version of the Army’s Excalibur smart artillery round.
The four-inch, dart-like round uses tiny fins and an optical sensor in its nose to follow a laser beam all the way to its target, similar to the way a laser-guided bomb finds its target.
Think you can build it, then Sandia’s two researchers who are developing the round, Red Jones and Brian Kast, want to talk to you.
Click through to watch a video of the round and read more on it from a Sandia National Labs press release:
Most bullets shot from rifles, which have grooves, or rifling, that cause them to spin so they fly straight, like a long football pass. To enable a bullet to turn in flight toward a target and to simplify the design, the spin had to go, Jones said.
The bullet flies straight due to its aerodynamically stable design, which consists of a center of gravity that sits forward in the projectile and tiny fins that enable it to fly without spin, just as a dart does, he said.
Computer aerodynamic modeling shows the design would result in dramatic improvements in accuracy, Jones said. Computer simulations showed an unguided bullet under real-world conditions could miss a target more than a half mile away (1,000 m away) by 9.8 yards (9 m), but a guided bullet would get within 8 in (0.2 m), according to the patent.
The prototype does not require a device found in guided missiles called an inertial measuring unit, which would have added substantially to its cost. Instead, the researchers found that the bullet’s relatively small size when compared to guided missiles “is helping us all around. It’s kind of a fortuitous thing that none of us saw when we started,” Jones said.Plastic sabots provide a gas seal in the cartridge and protect the delicate fins until they drop off after the bullet emerges from the firearm’s barrel.
As the bullet flies through the air, it pitches and yaws at a set rate based on its mass and size. In larger guided missiles, the rate of flight-path corrections is relatively slow, so each correction needs to be very precise because fewer corrections are possible during flight. But “the natural body frequency of this bullet is about 30 hertz, so we can make corrections 30 times per second. That means we can overcorrect, so we don’t have to be as precise each time,” Jones said.
Testing has shown the electromagnetic actuator performs well and the bullet can reach speeds of 2,400 ft/sec, or Mach 2.1, using commercially available gunpowder. The researchers are confident it could reach standard military speeds using customized gunpowder.
{ 75 comments… read them below or add one }
Let the Bullet bending begin.
You thinking Angelna Jolie & her curving bullets too?
I guess. I was thinking more Avatar: The Last Airbender, where people with special powers can control the elements, or physical objects comprised of their particular element. Thus earth-benders could throw rocks, and the more advanced metal benders could tear ships open.
Or Angelina Jolie works too.
4 inch long? What weapon uses that size of round?
Probably something in the 20mm plus caliber range.
Typically a sniper rifle. The Barret .50 uses a 5.5 inch long round. Sniper rifles have a lot of interchangeable parts. the ability to modify one is pretty easy.
You guys realize there's such thing as cartridge length? .50 BMG is NOT 5.5 inches of projectile… You really lack understanding of 'sniper rifles'….
Yes. I ment cartridge. Wrong choice of words.
oh ok then…forgiven :P
my guess would be a customized weapon 12.7mm or larger. (That's a .50cal for the rest of us)
Ok, so lets say this is for a 12.7mm, that means they will have to carry a separate smooth-bore barrel, since I am betting you can't always use a laser guided round and will need to use regular rounds instead. But then a thought occurred to me. What about our new Anti-defilade weapon? Isn't that a smoothbore? It also has at the very least a laser range finder. Sounds like an easy weapon to equip this to.
The Punisher or XM25 isn't a smoothbore. The round actually counts its spins coming out of the barrel so it knows when to explode.
Another thing, the XM-25 shoots a much bigger (30 mm) round at a much lower muzzle velocity. At 2400 FPS, it's already going faster than an 7.62 mm round when it leaves the barrel of an AKM.
if no one told me…i’d think 50Cal immediately.
What is the application for this? A sniper with a .50 cal can already hit precision targets at a mile. This is a larger, infinitely more expensive rifle to do the same thing. There is no rocket or explosive payload on the round so what are you trying to destroy with it.
What ever happened to the individual mini-rocket concept that would let each soldier carry several self-guided mini rockets. Basically a stick grenade size launcher that could fire a small explosive precession rocket a couple hundred yards.
The application in my mind is simple. First it costs a great deal of time and money to train a single sniper. Second, they can't be everywhere and in some cases you need a way to take out a pinpoint target fast. Third, now you can give a soldier with some extra training to fire the weapon, the capability to hit a sniper or a point target with relative ease and without having to call in an artillery strike or a JDAM on the target.
As for the minirocket, they are probably worried about collateral damage since a grenade can kill out to about 10 feet in open air.
Other interesting applications might be allowing riflemen to designate targets for weapons further back. See a bad guy? Lase it for the machinegun. Alternatively, it might make plunging fire more accurate with someone to do the lasing.
That sounds like having specialized weapons with very expensive ammunition held in reserve, probably at company HQ. Not very much more available than the sniper teams in every battalion.
Holding match-grade 7.62 NATO (or in other countries cases, .338 Lapua) is likely to be equally rare. As for price…remember we were slamming TOW missiles into buildings in the early years of OIF because we had no other hard attack capability on Humvees. Not cheap either. Though now that Carl Gustav might be trickling into the ranks…
With the ability to guide a bullet you take out the wind calculation & make a hit on a moving target easier.
I agree that this tech lends itself more towards mini-rockets (like old gyrojet weapons), solving the problem of acuracy. Guided 20-30mm rocket propelled round would make great long range sniper rifle with negligible recoil and muzzle blast.
With sufficient fast moving target tracking, this tech may be applicable to aircraft cannons too.
Just because it's limited to (presumably) 12.7mm now doesn't mean that refinement won't get it down to 7.62 or 5.56 within some reasonable amount of time.
I thought of a new usage, that of an assassination weapon. A VIP in a moving car would be easier to hit.
Yes, Lee Harvey. Even you could now make the same shot in Dallas…….
Lee Harvey did then too. They've done re-enactment experiments and prooved it wasn't as hard to do as previously was thought.
Not the smartest thing to say online. Nor does that comment validate this toy. Gyrojet rockets could have done what this thing will eventually do, probably with less development, 30-40 years ago, but they were killed by the Gun Control Act of '68, due to being .50 cal or larger. In either case, calling attention to their potential use as an assassin's tool may sound like a good idea on a video game board, but on one like this, is alarming to the sheep. There are a lot of things that could be used for assassination, many of them much cheaper, even against a moving car, but unless you're discussing ways to protect yourself from them (and often even then), too many netizens will be scared that you can think of such things. "You MUST be an unstable nutjob talking about what he's about to do" is all that's going to go through their minds.
People already associate guided weapons with "assassination", be it by laser or by GPS. There was, and probably still is a furor about "smart bombs" floating about the internet in peacenik circles.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it would be much harder to hit a target within a moving vehicle due to the need to penetrate glass. Bullets act in different ways when they hit glass, and while an actual sniper using a plain old spin-stabilized bullet can do the math and figure out the angle and amount the bullet will deflect on impact, a "smart bullet" that overcorrects dramatically in its trajectory would hit the glass at a different angle. This could easily cause the round to miss the target entirely.
A similar issue will exist if you attempt to penetrate concealement or barricades with a round like this. The lack of spin stabilization and the excessive length of the projectile will make it extremely prone to upset when it impacts just about anything, a trait that every fin-stabilized small arms round has shown (see the original ACR project in the 1970s). The"long rod" penetrators fired by many main battle tanks also have a tendency to upset upon striking a target at a sharp angle or when passing through something as insubstantial as a bush.
Finally, I'm not particularly convinced as to the termnal effectiveness of the round. While the 4.5 inch length mean that the sectional density is high on the surface, I can't believe that electronics and actuators have anywhere near the mass and density of lead, which leads me to believe that, while computer simulations may show it being accurate at 1,000 meters (and what were they using to make their accuracy standard, a boy scout with a pellet gun? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of shooters perfectly capable of hitting a man-sized target at ranges well beyond 1,000 meters, which modern equipment can help them hit with the first shot fired), the round may well not have the impact energy to assure a kill.
I'm guessing this isn't for room clearance.
Depends on how far away the room is…
Cue the personal laser jammers…..
A beam-riding bullet would make machineguns really scary…and probably compensate for weapons that are less-than-accurate, such as the AKM. Not like AKM users will have magazines of laser-guided rounds any time soon…
Wouldn't rapid-firing these things from a machine gun be a waste of expensive ammunition as opposed to using them in a sniper rifle?
It would definitely mean no cone of fire/beaten zone.
I doubt AKM users would want it/ could afford it anyway. They are using an AKM afterall.
anybody see that movie "runaway" with tom selleck and the blonde from "dirty dancing" ?
Recall that it was a fire-and-forget IR round, though. Like a tiny AIM-9.
That's just so fun and awesome. Soon a foxhole will be a death trap for enemy solders.
It’s about time. Game changer.
It’s about time. Game changer
This is ment for tanks isn't it?
ATGMs have no problems finding tanks.
but a 120mm sabot has slightly longer range, plus a tank typically carries a lot more main gun rounds than ATGM carriers carry missiles
Well ofcourse AT units carry less missiles than tanks carry main gun rounds. The AT units aren't meant to go head on at them, rather they wait in ambush or screen in front of the main force.
Does it? A TOW can engage (at great risk) at ranges roughly equivalent to a tank main gun; the risk mostly because wireless TOW was not funded in the '90s.
Most ATGMs today are smaller because we place a greater importance on portability, and in some cases, soft-launch than we do long range.
TOWs are at 4500m (unclassified) now. They exceed main gun range.
Hey Ahab….you can run but you can't hide
Missing discussion of the optical sensor, motors for fin movement, processor for calculations, power source for processor..
While I can think, off the top of my head, of a few solutions to some of those components, I'm still curious what they used.
"Computer simulations showed an unguided bullet under real-world conditions could miss a target more than a half mile away (1,000 m away)"
Really? They needed a computer simulation to tell them this? Everyone knows it "could" make a difference depending on WHO is pulling the trigger.
And on that note, half of a mile is roughly 800 meters, not a 1000. Also, you could make it even cooler with bigger numbers if you give it to us in inches!
Sorry for the sarcasm but the article deserves it.
Interesting tech but its has issues. One not discussed is that the laser is an issue. Anyone knows that recoil impacts your point of aim. The laser is going to have to be independent of the shooter especially for a large caliber weapon. Anyone who's fired one knows how difficult it is to get back on target especially if you have to do it before the bullet gets there.
so have an independent unit tracking the target for the gunner…
i mean snipers already have a spotter for example, arm the spotter's observation optic with a laser designator for it and voila…
alternatively given the new trend with drones, have the drones do the tagging… i mean why does the shooter have to be the one doing it? Assuming of course i understand what you are trying to imply correctly.
There are ways around it but now dedicating two soldiers to hit a target isn't always a winning solution. My point is the technology is immature and needs work before finding it's place.
i am not sure what you base on to judge that,
it is certainly young and in it's infancy as far as this form goes, but the system is technically based on a mechanism we've been using for decades except miniaturized.
lasing equipment been in the modern forces inventory for how long now? all it means now is that we can engage more targets type with it with less collateral damage as this will be a new munition to add to the list of other laser guided munitions already existing.
it is not likely to be expected to replace standard munition and what not, but it most certainly will provide a capability that we can't quite fill right now.
Or put the whole thing on a tripod
Have you fired a .50 from a tripod? Restablishing sight picture BEFORE the round hits is no small task. It's the primary reason snipers have spotters and tank commanders provide spotting corrections to their gunner.
That's why god invented sand bags. ;)
FWIW TOF at a click is just over a second and half.
That being said I wouldn't focus on the 1,000m quotes in the release. Think more along the lines of the ability to make those 2.5K shots commonplace. At that range TOF is pushing 7 seconds.
Being laser guided can be a real pain to hit.
Cant point & shoot.
if you can hit it with just point and shoot, then it didn't need laser guidance in the first place… that's a target too close or one that can just be as easily shot with any regular rounds to waste a guided munition.
I really don't get the what's the application comments. Your in a JLTV, the RWS is fitted with a rapid firing gun designed for this new round, the gunner designates the targets with his touchscreen and the gun slews hitting each target with out hitting anything else, gunfight over. Use some imagination.
They're right, though. What's the point, other than being a kewel new toy? What does it do for us that, say a networked laser target designator on an M-16 doesn't? This is not a bad idea for long-term development, but in the short run, pointless. Exciting to read about, but doesn't really change anything yet. And how much money is it going to soak up before we decide it's not technically feasible yet?
This is a interesting break through. There is so much more work to be done before we can even think of fielding as a system. The article only vaguely mentions length, but nothing else about any of the specifications. Further development should prove to be very interesting. I would like to see more in detail, much more.
A-10 equipping these rounds and a SniperXL targeting pod would be interesting, though it might require a 2 seater conversion for a RWO.
There was a CalPoly AIAA student competition design for an AC-130 replacement called Firefox that shows a possible future with rounds like this. Used laser guided 40mm CTA (which would roughly equivalent to 25mm) for the small guns and a 105mm CTA cannon on the belly fixed forward, firing the equivalent to an Excalibur round. The PDF’s are near the bottom of the following URL.
http://aerosim.calpoly.edu/projects/past-projects/
So, its a fin stabilized and guided round. But it appears to be a beam rider. So how are they going to equip the laser seeker to the nose of a round? Another interesting piece of tech that might work would be the rocket round. They did design bullets that used a rocket in them instead of gun powder. The other could be the electronically fire rounds similar to the metal storm.
Interesting, perhaps in the future we can fire one from Ft. Carson and take out an idiot in Iran.
Think about it..stepping out the arms room door… giving it the address and a photo… bang… "go get em"! Whats for chow today Sarg? A short time latter a news broadcast of one less A-hole in thiis world.
Just another of our many "stand-off weapons" proving that we're losing our zeal for murdering each other if we have to face each other. Drones kill from thousands of miles away, (indiscriminately I might add) snipers can do the job from over a mile away, aircraft can down the enemy from over the horizon (without even seeing the enemy plane except for a radar blip) ,,, we're missing out on all the romance of killing, the blood spattering, limbs separating from the body, guts all over the place.
Does this mean that we'll start pinning medals on drones, or sniper rifles? The more our technology is responsible for successful kills the more we have to recognize its contribution by glorifying it with medals, right?? Isn't that how the game is played? All "War is a racket".
How did you get from standoff warfare to Smedley Butler?
The left leaning looney mind comes up with all kinds of relationships. Just watch a direct TV commercial for the train of thought.
Just a thought…but perhaps a system based around these magic bullets could be drone mounted? Increased accuracy=more precise delivery of firepower=reduced need for heavy firepower=lighter weapons system=can be mounted on a smaller drone.
Imagine a larger version of these spooky quadrocoptor drones equipped with a hyper accurate weapons system that can be illuminated by infantry on the ground:-
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/01/qu…
Fox News just posted a photo of it. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/01/smart-b…
Looks smaller than 50 cal.
Just another of our many "stand-off weapons" proving that we're losing our zeal for murdering each other if we have to do it facing each other. Drones kill from thousands of miles away, snipers murder from a mile away and pilots can down an enemy aircraft while its beyond the horizon. The less we have to do with direct combat, the closer we come to awarding those "hero" medals to machines. There is no glory in war but this new warfare makes it almost like a child's electronic game; we are becoming totally detached from our butchery and this makes us feel good.
Just another of our many "stand-off weapons" proving that we're losing our zeal for murdering each other if we have to do it facing each other. Drones kill from thousands of miles away, snipers fro a mile away, and planes can down the enemy before he clears the horizon. Guess we should start awarding the hero medals to the machinery.
Wonderful technology for small arms. I'm sure that 5.56 NATO rounds with this capability will only cost about $400 per each bullet.
Just another of our many "stand-off weapons" proving that we're losing our zeal for murdering each other if we have to do it facing each other. Drones kill from thousands of miles away, snipers from a mile away and planes can down an enemy before he clears the horizon. Next is awarding hero medals to the machines of war.
Basically, you're still going to miss quite often – particularly if the laser wobbles a bit. (More collateral, I suspect).
Even better. I knew they outranged WP 125mm (but they have ATGMs…)