Can You Believe It:---A self guided Bullet

[MastanKhan]

Self-Guided Bullet Strikes Target a Mile Away [VIDEO]
By Alissa Skelton | Mashable – 15 hrs ago
Email
19
Print

A breakthrough in precision bullet technology for small caliber firearms will make striking a target an easier task. Two researchers at Sandia's National Laboratories created a self-guided dart-like bullet able to strike a target more than a mile away.
[More from Mashable: Apple Introduces New Reservation System for iPhone Purchases in China [VIDEO]]
The self-guided 4-inch bullet prototype has been successfully tested in both computer simulations and field testing -- where bullet speeds have reached 2,400 feet per second. The bullet differs from missile technology, in that the self-guided bullet has an optical sensor that can detect a laser beam on a target, which allows the bullet to steer toward a target.
In one field test, researchers attached a tiny light-emitting diode, or LED to the bullet to tract its path and researchers found the "battery and electronics could survive the bullet's launch," Sandia Lab reported.
[More from Mashable: British Tourists Barred From Entering U.S. Over Tweet About ‘Destroying America’ [VIDEO]]
The bullet is still a prototype, but if it passes further testing conducted by a private firm, the bullet will be accessible to recreational shooters, law enforcement and the military. Lockheed Martin assisted Sandia Lab's research and has worked with the military to develop a self-guided bullet over the years.
"While engineering issues remain, we’re confident in our science base and we’re confident the engineering-technology base is there to solve the problems,” Sandia researcher Red Jones said in a statement.
Check out the video above to learn more.
Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories

 

[Don Jaguar]

Sandia’s New Smart Bullet

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.​

[video]http://www.military.com/video/ammunition-and-explosives/small-arms-ammunition/sandias-self-guided-bullet/1425708714001/[/video]

http://defensetech.org/2012/01/31/sandias-new-smart-bullet/

 

[Black Widow]

Assassination will be easy then...

 

[RPK]

[video]http://mashable.com/2012/01/31/self-guided-bullet/[/video]

 

[Major Shaitan Singh]

Iran must have built it long back


US Government researchers have created self-guided bullets that can find their way to a target up to 2km away.

The dart-like bullet was invented by engineers at Sandia National Laboratories in California and features a laser-guided system.

Sandia researchers Red Jones and Brian Kast fitted the bullet with a built-in optical sensor that can be guided by shining a laser beam on a target.

“The sensor sends information to guidance and control electronics that use an algorithm to command electromagnetic actuators. These actuators steer tiny fins that guide the bullet to the target,” Sandia National Laboratories website says.

Mr Jones said the bullet can self-correct its navigational path 30 times a second, all while flying more than twice the speed of sound.

The bullet flies straight due to its aerodynamically stable design, which consists of a centre of gravity that sits forward in the projectile and tiny fins that enable it to fly without spin, just as a dart does," Mr Jones said.

The researchers successfully tested the design in computer simulations and in field tests using prototypes built from commercially available parts.

Sandia National Laboratories is part of security company Lockheed Martin - who is working with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a "super" scope for sniper rifles.

Known as the One Shot system the team is developing a computer scope that can help snipers accurately hit targets in all weather conditions.

 

[Avisheik]

Ahhh....warfare is being taken into the next level. Playing COD will be easy for everyone from now on

 

[cheekybird]

self delete

 

[Donatello]

You've got to be kidding me...

 

[Infinite]

Reminds me of CSI Miami Smart Bullet Episode.
youtube.com/watch?v=NtF5c0tzel8
bing.com/videos/watch/video/smart-bullet/17utak806?cpkey=d1a4d801-1dfd-4bc6-9183-67ca645afb03||||

 

[Tiger Awan]

lolz

people must be scared to join army now

 

[Chogy]

Here's the stupid part... someone must point a laser at the target, and hold it there.

If you point a laser, you may as well point a 7.62mm rifle and pull the trigger.

 

[Last Hope]

I believe this is possible, but only for Snipers with large caliber. Would be too expensive and huge, hence used against supreme targets like any General or political leader.

 

[The enlightened]

Here's the stupid part... someone must point a laser at the target, and hold it there.

If you point a laser, you may as well point a 7.62mm rifle and pull the trigger.

But it is supposed to have ranges exceeding a mile. At that distance aren't wind speed/direction, humidity, recoil, coriolis effect etc.etc.etc going to have an effect on the bullet. Atleast that's what they said in 'Shooter'.

 

[Chogy]

But it is supposed to have ranges exceeding a mile. At that distance aren't wind speed/direction, humidity, recoil, coriolis effect etc.etc.etc going to have an effect on the bullet. Atleast that's what they said in 'Shooter'.

I understand what you are saying, but having an assistant track a guy with a laser from 1 mile by itself is going to be almost impossible. Even with superb optics.

My impression was that the laser designator would be close than the shooter. And if he's close, he may as well shoot the guy.

It's an interesting technology, but I don't think anything is going to come of it.

 

[crimemaster_gogo]

imagine if the bullet had the flight pattern of javelin. jk then it would have been the smallest and cutest missiles of all.