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DARPA's guided sniper bullet changes path mid-flight

By Nick Lavars
July 15, 2014
DARPA's guided sniper bullet changes path mid-flight
DARPA has conducted live-fire testing of its .50 caliber guided bullet
DARPA has conducted live-fire testing of its .50 caliber guided bullet
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DARPA has conducted live-fire testing of its .50 caliber guided bullet
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DARPA has conducted live-fire testing of its .50 caliber guided bullet
With the rifle intentionally aimed to the right of the marked target, the bullet can be seen veering in trajectory, altering its path to strike accurately over an undisclosed distance
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With the rifle intentionally aimed to the right of the marked target, the bullet can be seen veering in trajectory, altering its path to strike accurately over an undisclosed distance
DARPA claims the technology is likely to markedly extend the day and night time range of current sniper systems
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DARPA claims the technology is likely to markedly extend the day and night time range of current sniper systems
DARPA has conducted live-fire testing of its .50 caliber guided bullet
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DARPA has conducted live-fire testing of its .50 caliber guided bullet
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With an ability to strike from great distances, snipers present a unique threat in the field of battle. This long-range lethality is not without its complications, however, with accuracy often dictated by wind, rain and dust, not to mention targets that are constantly on the move. Over the last few months, DARPA has been conducting live-fire tests of guided .50 caliber bullets and today unveiled footage demonstrating the project's success.

With the aim of improving accuracy and safety for military snipers, DARPA's Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) project is tasked with developing more accurate artillery that will enable greater firing range, minimize the time required to engage with targets and also help to reduce missed shots that can give away a troop's location.

The EXACTO 50-caliber round is claimed to be the first ever guided small-caliber bullet. The maneuverable projectile uses a real-time optical guidance system to change its path mid-flight and home in on a target, potentially overcoming adverse weather and hostile conditions to improve sniper accuracy.

DARPA isn't giving too much away in terms of technical detail. However, if the illustration above is any indication, the steering mechanism used by DARPA appears different to the method used by a team at the Sandia National Laboratories back in 2012.

In that case, researchers developed a small-caliber guided bullet prototype capable of steering toward a laser-marked target 2 km (1.2 mi) away. This was accomplished by way of an optical sensor on the bullet's nose that gathers flight path information, while onboard electronics controlled tiny fins on its side to direct it toward the target. No such fins can be seen on the EXACTO round.

The DARPA footage, which can be seen below, demonstrates two rounds of live-fire testing. With the rifle intentionally aimed to the right of the marked target, the bullet can be seen veering in trajectory, altering its path to strike accurately over an undisclosed distance. DARPA claims the technology is likely to markedly extend the day and night-time range of current sniper systems.

Following the successful demonstration of the round's guidance systems and sensor, DARPA will now work to refine the technology to improve performance and conduct system-level live fire testing.

Source: DARPA

EXACTO Demonstrates First-Ever Guided .50-Caliber Bullets

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23 comments
Nick Lavars
Nick Lavars
Nick has been writing and editing at New Atlas for over six years, where he has covered everything from distant space probes to self-driving cars to oddball animal science. He previously spent time at The Conversation, Mashable and The Santiago Times, earning a Masters degree in communications from Melbourne’s RMIT University along the way.

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23 comments
DLK811
Is the barrel still rifled? If so and the bullet is spinning how on earth is it able to steer itself in flight?!? Amazing!
Mel Tisdale
I'll bet there is no rifling on the bore of the weapon it is fired from, unless the electronics are giddiness proof.
My guess is that the target acquisition is by infra-red and the three rings in the middle of the round effect the steering. I imagine that it would take something like an A10 Warthog (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rGcn2XGr48) to cope with an enemy equipped with these and as far as I know there is nothing like an A10 Warthog.
Nairda
...and then they release a multi target lock, modified gun for the A10 that fires these.
And the Chuck Norris of Airplanes is born.
sascha.kremers
War just became a little bit more asymmetric.
ezeflyer
Amazing technology. Imagine if they could use our taxes to help people and the planet instead of killing them and destroying it.
Ernest Joseph Roberts
A very promising weapon for snipers and commando units with adequate backup.
flink
The weapon is still rifled. It's easily possible to put a ring laser gyro and accelerometer inside a round of that size and perhaps use some sort of small motor to affect the bullet's path by varying the motor's spin.
The laser sensor, guidance/steering components, and power source would need very little space and weight is not really a concern since they'd weigh less than volume of metal they replace.
BeWalt
Ah, bullets, guns, awesome! Let's all keep believing in the fairy tale that shooting people solves problems instead of perpetuating them. Evidence be screwed.
And no, I'm not talking about a hostage taker in a kindergarten. I'm talking about warfare and the military's way of thinking.
And yes, that latter case is what this is developed for, since the kindergarten hostage taker problem is too small a target market to dump millions of dollars into.
First, the U.S. military will be the only one who has this. Decades later, it will have trickled down to the last roof dwelling sniper defending some backwater tyrant by shooting pedestrians.
StWils
As a retired Ordnance officer I would expect that the next major system developmental step would be to mount this weapon to the underside of a small drone with a very muffled engine. It would be great to be able to punch a target's lights out from a mile away, at some modest altitude, all without putting a team on the ground and all of this from potentially several hundred miles from a support base or maybe even a distant larger "mothership" carrier/launcher aircraft. New mission for a C130? Cruise missiles are a big expensive hammer. Joint Standoff glide bombs are still a big hammer with lots of potential for collateral damage. It would be great to be able to cancel someone's ticket from a hundred miles away and only spatter the wall while leaving virtually no other signature.
the.other.will
The DARPA web page for the EXACTO mentions aero-actuation controls, which implies some form of fin. But no fins can be seen in the illustration. The optical guidance system has to fit in the 1/2 inch diameter bullet, so it's probably simple. If optical refers to a laser, then the laser beam could be detected before the projectile hits. An ordinary 50 caliber bullet takes over 2 seconds to travel 2000 meters.
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