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DARPA's Smart Bullet Can Change Course To Hit Moving Targets

Logan

You have probably learned about the DARPA EXACTO (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance) Bullet here on Popular Airsoft almost a year ago. The EXACTO Bullet is a .50 caliber self-guiding bullet that can hit targets at impossible angles and moving targets.  Last year a video was posted showing how the bullet guides itself at the target even if the aimpoint was different. The latest video posted three days ago on YouTube by DARPA  shows a successful test against a moving target conducted last February 2015.

The video shows an expert shooter hitting a moving target six time consecutively, making a 100% hit rate with the EXACTO Bullet. This shows that the bullet is able to make changes in its ballistic path in mid-air as the target accelerates to ensure a high probability of a hit, and in this case, it was always on target. The next shooter after the six hits was a first time untrained user and was able to hit the moving target just like how the expert shooter did.

The video means that anyone with an EXACTO Bullet and the rifle with which it can be fired from, like the Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle, even if untrained to be a sniper can take out hard to hit targets. Now equip a rifle squad such smart ammo and rifle and they may just hold-off an enemy battalion from a longer distance. In short, a force multiplier. For SpecOps snipers on a mission to eliminate a high value target, their mission got easier as they just leave the calculation such as trajectory, wind conditions, elevation, etc. to the EXACTO bullet itself and focus their scopes on the target.

But will it make anyone with the bullet and rifle a sniper? Well, a good shooter perhaps, a sniper no. Being a sniper these days is not just about being deadly accurate when shooting at targets at great distances. It's about being patient to approach a target just for intelligence gathering purposes and not having orders to shoot. There is a lot of discipline required of a sniper that being a sharpshooter is just one of them. Information that a sniper team relays back to the HQ is much more important. There is still much more to a sniper than being a feared shooter.

The EXACTO Bullet will be a game changer in the field as it will make the enemy think twice before making an attack. The bullet, even if it is designed for the sniper or marksman, may just make anyone in an infantry unit a potential deadly shooter, even if not trained to be a sniper.

(Teaser Photo: A U.S. paratrooper scans for targets behind a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle while on a partnered patrol near Muqor in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, June 25, 2012. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod. Defense.gov)

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