Self-Guided Bullet Strikes Target a Mile Away

It's a 4" long bullet... any idea what the caliber is? I have a feeling it will become a "destructive device."

Not likely for recreational shooters or law enforcement. The military and mexican drug cartels would probably be the only ones who could aford the (probably $10k a trigger pull) cost.

In the video it shows somebody holding one. I'm not very good at guessing stuff like that, but I think it looks like a .30 caliber rifle round.

Be interesting what would happen if these ever did become available to the general public...the outcry would be enormous from the left. Be good for police sniper teams - need one to shoot and the other to lase the target.

If it costs $22,000 per round, it won't be too popular.

Price my guess, but it sure won't be as cheap as hardball.

The cost will definitely be a limiting factor, as will availability. I would assume that the government would buy up many of these rounds if they are put into production. It seemed to be a .50 cal bullet, but I could be wrong. Besides, just because it is legal, doesn't mean that Lockheed Martin will condone the sale of this product to the general public.

I have seen a good sniper do that with a regular bullet...........

I can just see the laser range finder manufactures jumping on this and advertising a guided range finder at $2995.00.

Cool concept but I agree. Us normal folk will never see it. Plus, I don't see a reason for anyone but military personnel having any use for that anyway. It would take all the skill and technique out of target shooting.

I don't see a reason for anyone but military personnel having any use for that anyway

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Don't people say that about 30 round mags, full auto firearms, etc.?

Be interesting what would happen if these ever did become available to the general public...the outcry would be enormous from the left. Be good for police sniper teams - need one to shoot and the other to lase the target.

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I see this being a bad idea for police sniper teams. A police sniper rarely takes a shot further than 100 yards away, and if you are trying to coordinate a trigger pull from a shooter with someone else trying to hold a laser designator on a target you are asking for either 1. a miss, or 2. a dead hostage.

This is not in any way practical for a police sniper, it will cause much more harm than good. Keep it as it is, I honestly see this causing a bigger miss at 100 yards than a poor trigger squeeze.

303tom said:

I have seen a good sniper do that with a regular bullet...........

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Not this, not unless he can shoot around corners. I saw a video of it. That thing looked more like a guided missle than a bullet, meaning no elegant arc but a twisting and curving path to the target. Pretty cool looking though. It was fired using a sabot and like was said, was 4" long.

I can see this being a game changer if perfected.

I can see this being a game changer if perfected.

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I could see it being a *military* game changer if perfected. And then only on extremely long shots, or for shots that there is no direct (unobstructed) path to the target.

I don't see anyone outside of the military using these....and I am not an anti, but I would not be disappointed to see the sales of these restricted to only the military and elite police units.

Think about it, JFK was killed by a direct fire round....now the President has better protection from that, but this would just be too much. I am not saying that I support Obama, but I do like the idea of a democracy and having a president.

I was just thinking about the logic argument here, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but what is the point of a turning bullet if you have to use a laser (which by definition doesn't bend unless you are near a neutron star) to aim it?

I was just thinking about the logic argument here, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but what is the point of a turning bullet if you have to use a laser (which by definition doesn't bend unless you are near a neutron star) to aim it?

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If you are firing from an exceptionally long distance (like many snipers in Afghanistan are), then it is hard to correctly compensate for spin drift, the coriolis effect, and even windage on each shot. Having the round follow a laser would allow for the bullet to stay on target, when a conventional round might not.

I was just thinking about the logic argument here, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but what is the point of a turning bullet if you have to use a laser (which by definition doesn't bend unless you are near a neutron star) to aim it?

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It would allow small arms fire (think machineguns) to be aimed by forward observers. Very beneficial for military applications.

allaroundhunter said:

Think about it, JFK was killed by a direct fire round....now the President has better protection from that, but this would just be too much. I am not saying that I support Obama, but I do like the idea of a democracy and having a president.

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That's what the Secret Service is for, isn't it?

What if a group of political extremists were to arm themselves with AR-15s and 30-rd mags, and 20 of them were to attack the president at some political event?

Better ban those high-capacity assault clips and evil-looking black firearms!

Seems like a lot of wasted technology. Any reasonably skilled shooter can perform the same task with "dumb bullet" ! Improved/ing interior/exterior ballistics and computer programs make this scenario even more viable.

FWIW, at the the battle of Adobe Walls a buffalo hunter, Billy Dixon, killed a Commanche war chief at nearly half this distance - as later established by a U.S. Army survey patrol - with an open-sighted black- powder Sharps ! He claimed it was a "scratch shot" - IOW in the parlance of the times - a lucky shot ! But he did it; it was attested to and later documented !

We have people trained and skilled enough to perform this task reliably ! All this "improvement" does is - reportedly - reduce those hard-earned skills to nothing ! >MW

I don't agree that any skilled shooter can match this with a regular bullet. What if your target moves or the wind kicks up after you pull the trigger? With a regular bullet, you miss, with this one, there is still a good chance you'll hit the target.

That's what the Secret Service is for, isn't it?

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NY, my point is that with this a sniper can fire without even having to look directly at the president, from a distance much further than the Secret Service currently considers a "safe distance". There is a difference b/w an assailant with a 30 round magazine and a sniper who can hit what he is aiming at without even being able to see it.

This takes away from the idea of shooting as I came to know and love.

They would have an application in some of those places we dont go for very long, where we just Liase with the locals....just saying.