This story got my attention early this week as it's something that project's researchers can get inspiration from airsoft tracer BBs. The U.S. Army's Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey are working on coming up with new tracer rounds that can be used effectively at night as well as during the day and reducing the visual signature of the soldier shooting the tracer round. This means that the soldier can shoot and do corrections to his/her aim without the target being able to pinpoint the origin of the shot.

Tracer rounds are bright that it's easy for the enemy to shoot back by just aiming at the direction where the tracer rounds are coming as their pyrotechnic streak is long enough to reveal their originating position. For those who have been using Tracer BBs during night games, they understand this as their position is quickly given away once they starting lighting up the darkness with their luminescent BBs. The tracer BBs light-up as soon as they're light-treated inside the tracer units which are designed as mock suppressors in airsoft guns. The advantage of tracer BBs is that they don't emit a long streak as compared to existing tracer rounds, which make it harder for the enemy in airsoft game to immediately determine the position of the shooter of tracer BBs.

Tracer Rounds

Called One Way Luminescence (OWL), this new generation of tracer rounds are being researched by the engineers from the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC).  Tracer rounds are shaped like the hollow or pointy bullets but with the OWL, they are looking into ball rounds with lesser or no pyrotechnic materials used.

OWL Tracers

In Defense-Update's report, here is what the ARDEC group says about the project:

“OWL is a technology approach that doesn’t allow an enemy target to trace back to who is firing rounds at him, even if the target is using night vision goggles,” said Christel Seitel, Quality Assurance Lead for the OWL program.

ARDEC engineers are experimenting with a variety of potential solutions. With one of the OWL technology concepts, “we’re just putting a thin layer of material on the back of the ball round. So, instead of burning pyrotechnics, our luminescence is like a glow-in-the-dark sticker. You excite it with specific wavelengths of light. The ultimate goal is to replace the tracer rounds with the OWL rounds and, potentially, put OWL on the back of every ball round,” Seitel said.

The OWL in action is shown in these two videos from PNW Arms:

With the objective of not using pyrotechnic materials in the manufacture of OWL tracer rounds, it makes them easier to manufacture as pyrotechnic materials are highly flammable. And since tracer rounds using pyro materials reduce in mass as soon as they are fired, the trajectory is not exactly the same as the other rounds. With the OWL, they can be fired for longer distance and can be adjusted easily for accuracy, allowing shooters to "walk their rounds" to the target.

In the same Defense-Update report, the OWL program expects to be a formal acquisition program in 2015 with a design being adopted in 2017. Actually, multiple contracts were awarded to companies to help spur the design via competitive proposals.  If the program goes according to plan, we can expect the OWL tracer rounds to be in service before the end of this decade.