It’s A Guided Missile! It’s A Bullet! It’s BOTH!
It’s been a sci-fi dream for the military: bullets that can change direction like guided missiles. Be afraid: they’re here!
[DARPA] has shown off new footage of its Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance — shortened to EXACTO rounds — that show the smart bullets maneuvering in mid-air to hit moving targets.
DARPA first showed off its EXACTO technology in a video released last year. The clip highlighted the agency’s advanced bullet as it’s fired from a rifle, showing it veering off course half-way through its flight to hit a designated area. This new video, taken during tests earlier this February, shows the rounds compensating for the acceleration of a moving target, deviating from their natural course to slam into their torso-shaped objective.
The agency says the tech will help snipers quickly identify targets in hostile and remote locations such as Afghanistan, where high winds and dusty terrain would otherwise send rounds off course. The new rounds are designed for professional snipers, but it appears the technology is advanced enough to find its target without a dead-eyed veteran behind the scope: the video shows that even when DARPA lets a first-time sniper pull the trigger, the EXACTO rounds still find their mark with creepy accuracy.
Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo
David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.
* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.
11 responses to It’s A Guided Missile! It’s A Bullet! It’s BOTH!
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illinoisboy1977 April 28th, 2015 at 10:15
Even with computer-aided target designation, you don’t want a rank amateur firing these. The round should be used to aid the natural abilities of the sniper, not prop up the substandard abilities of a washout.
Jimmy Fleck April 28th, 2015 at 10:21
Eventually it will come to arming drones with these bullets so that a “pilot” back in CA is highlighting targets on a screen and the drone just has to be pointed in the right direction to fire the bullets.
trees April 28th, 2015 at 15:04
I don’t think creepy is the proper adjective.
There’s nothing “creepy” about accuracy. Maybe you meant to say uncanny?
bpollen April 28th, 2015 at 15:32
You are the grammar police?!?!?!?
That’s the funniest thing since Obama’s WHCD speech!
trees April 28th, 2015 at 19:37
Remember when you thought you were the spelling Marshal?
That was funny too…
bpollen April 29th, 2015 at 03:39
No, I don’t remember that. Your hallucinations aren’t funny. What Marshal was i spelling? Was I referring to the Islands? Mr. Tucker? Dillon? Souza music? Crenshaw?
trees April 28th, 2015 at 19:38
Hey, make sure you correct my capitalisation error, mkay?
Carla Akins April 28th, 2015 at 18:32
Maybe it’s the way it stop and turns around to chase Wile Coyote that they find creepy?
fahvel April 29th, 2015 at 03:48
no no no splinter – it’s creepy really fn creepy.
fahvel April 29th, 2015 at 03:48
investing in snipers – how could that go wrong? Uh, maybe ’cause the bad guys will have the clever little projectiles too? Nah, never happen – god is on the side of arms folks and he’s laughing.
Warman1138 April 29th, 2015 at 04:21
We can make a smart bullet but we can’t make a decent politician.