Military

TrackingPoint precision guided rifles decide when to take their own best shot

TrackingPoint precision guided rifles decide when to take their own best shot
TriggerPoint's president test-firing the TriggerPoint XS1 tactical/sniper rifle
TriggerPoint's president test-firing the TriggerPoint XS1 tactical/sniper rifle
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TriggerPoint's president test-firing the TriggerPoint XS1 tactical/sniper rifle
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TriggerPoint's president test-firing the TriggerPoint XS1 tactical/sniper rifle
TriggerPoint XS2 prototype locked onto target, but pointed 8.72 MOA off firing solution
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TriggerPoint XS2 prototype locked onto target, but pointed 8.72 MOA off firing solution
TriggerPoint XS2 prototype locked onto target just before firing, pointed 0.33 MOA off firing solution
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TriggerPoint XS2 prototype locked onto target just before firing, pointed 0.33 MOA off firing solution
TriggerPoint XS1 prototype showing target tag and firing solution with windage correction
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TriggerPoint XS1 prototype showing target tag and firing solution with windage correction
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TrackingPoint, Inc., a precision guided rifle development company operating out of Austin, Texas, has developed breakthrough technology that claims to put jet fighter lock-and-launch technology onto a combat rifle, making sniper-level accuracy available to the average shooter.

Jason Schauble, the president of TrackingPoint, has taken on many challenges in his time. A past vice president of Remington’s Global Military Products, he is also a retired special ops Marine captain who won both Silver and Bronze Star medals in Iraq. Schaubel is now applying his "bold leadership, wise judgment, and complete dedication to duty" to leading TrackingPoint out of stealth mode and into a prominent position in the world of advanced tactical weapons.

TrackingPoint claims that their patent pending Intelligent Digital Tracking Scopes (tracking scopes) will allow an unskilled accurately hit long-range targets. How?

Initially, the view through a tracking scope is simply a magnified view of the target along an axis parallel to the rifle barrel. The shooter first "tags" a target by choosing a desired impact point on the target's surface. An electronic display adds a red dot that indicates the desired impact point, which remains fixed on the target as the direction of the rifle changes.

If the shooter fired the gun at this point, the result would be a clean miss. Between gravity, atmospheric drag, parallax, and cross-winds, bullets don't follow a straight path. What the shooter needs is a firing solution telling him where to point the rifle barrel so the bullet will hit the desired impact point when fired.

TriggerPoint XS1 prototype showing target tag and firing solution with windage correction
TriggerPoint XS1 prototype showing target tag and firing solution with windage correction

Now the riflescope computer displaces the aiming cross-hairs so that they indicate the bullet's impact point as predicted by the firing solution. If the trigger is now squeezed, the rifle will not fire until the desired impact point and the predicted impact point are sufficiently close together. At 1000 yards (914 m), most shots should hit within the width of a single hand.

In January, TrackingPoint plans to introduce three precision guided rifles. The XS1 will be a tactical rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum, one the remaining candidates for the new US special ops sniper caliber. The XS2, and XS3 will be smaller versions of the XS1 chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum cartridges.

Rumors of retail prices in the US$15-20K range have been reported, but there have been no formal announcements as yet. The video below gives a useful summary of TrackingPoint's efforts to date combined with their aspirations.

Source: TrackingPoint, via The Firearm Blog

Archive (2012) - PGF Demonstration

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17 comments
17 comments
MrGadget
How does the scope measure the cross wind?
flink
@MrGadget
The Abrams tank uses laser doppler measurement, but I don't see anything that looks like a laser tube on that hardware, so it's probably got a built in scintillation anemometer.
My questions are: 1. Is that price only for the scope system? 2. Must the scope system be matched to a particular weapon? 3. Is it the whole system powered up all the time, or do the bells and whistles only get turned on when needed? 4. What is the heat signature of the system? 5. Effective battery life before replacements are required.
Juan de la Cruz
That is truly amazing. Wow!
Wally3178
A very nice piece of kit in the right hands, the military. How are they going to prevent the gun crazies from getting their hands on it? I can't help but wonder what the DC snipers would have done with something like this.
Tyler.Totten
This is a very interesting development. As long as the Army keeps training snipers to do things without any electronic aids as they do today, this will be a fine addition.
Shef
This is all well and good on a "static" target; but, what can it do with a "dynamic"(moving) one??
the.other.will
How does the system function against moving targets? What happens when, say, the front of the target is tagged & then he turns around? Or the view is momentarily obstructed? Must the scope system be matched to a particular weapon? In order for the trigger to be controlled by the DTS, and for the tagging button to be ergonomic, I think the answer is yes. If the DTS is successful, there's likely to be a 7.62 X 51 mm & .50 BMG guns as well. How will the system be kept from criminals & the sanity challenged? Foreign buyers will be limited by weapons tech restrictions. The price alone is a powerful deterrent. 1 possible solution would be for the Pentagon to buy the right to limit distribution.
Bruce H. Anderson
Not too many "gun crazies" with 20 large in their pockets, I would guess. And even if they had that much change, I bet there would be the Mother of all background checks going on. This will probably be limited to the military, law enforcement, and the occasional assassin.
Jerry Johnston
Well what about the hunter wanna be's, or CEO's with a guide who puts you right where the animal is and now you don't even have to be a good shot. It's not fair to the animals, if there's any left.
Nairda
Wish list for V2 1.Platform will sit on a fixed tripod the user sets up in the field. Tripod will be a motorised mount linked to a portable terminal so there is no need for the user to actually touch the rifle.
2.Object tracking will look something like face tracking on a digital camera able to differentiate between object types, and able to lock on to moving targets.
3.Ammunition selector will have multiple feeds and load ammunition relevant to the target. This will be delivered either through a rotating multi-calibre barrel or single rail.
4.The unit will receive environmental information from the portable terminal and correlate satellite imagery with rifle view to shoot through smoke or fog.
5.Rifle eye will be multi-wavelength, able to lock on to targets behind objects like thin walled structures.
6.Multi-object tracking would allow such a unit to fire multiple rounds in a consecutive manner without pausing between shots to re-establish lock.
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