Readers of Liberty Blitzkrieg will be no strangers to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and its seemingly never-ending quest to develop more efficient means to spy on, control, and if necessary, murder other human beings. Two of the most noteworthy include the following:
DARPA Unveils “Atlas”: A 6 Foot Tall Humanoid Robot
Meet ARGUS: The World’s Highest Resolution Video Surveillance Platform
In case that wasn’t good enough for you, we now have EXACTO (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance) guided .50 caliber bullets. This is how DARPA itself describes the new “technology” via its YouTube channel:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX8Z2MDYX3g]DARPA’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program recently conducted the first successful live-fire tests demonstrating in-flight guidance of .50-caliber bullets. This video shows EXACTO rounds maneuvering in flight to hit targets that are offset from where the sniper rifle is aimed. EXACTO’s specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that could impede successful hits.
Time magazine is covering the story as well, and starts off the article with:
Accuracy trumps terror every time. For good or for ill, that is why Israeli missiles have killed at least 160 Palestinians, while Palestinian rockets have killed zero Israelis. While killing innocents as well as terrorists, the Israeli strikes are precise. So is its Iron Dome anti-missile system, which appears to be doing a pretty good job destroying Palestinian rockets headed for Israeli population centers. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are left to launch unguided rockets, hoping to get lucky and kill Israelis.
Next time it might not be Palestinians halfway across the globe. Next time, it could be you.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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this thing has been in development for some time.
go on darpa’s website and you can look at a list of their programs and open up many of them. they divide their programs by purpose. if you’re interested in the programs that are more obviously ‘military’ —you want to look at the ‘tactical’ development programs. exacto is a tactical program. if you are more interested in biology or electrical engineering –those are entirely separate areas and you can look those up too, but theyre more futruristic and related to logistics or fundamental knowledge development than procuring a working advanced weapon.
the truly secret stuff will not be online, but this exacto program has been for YEARS.
it’s not a new big thing and it won’t revolutionize war. these types of bullets are either sabotted ( fired out of a mother sleave bullet which drops off ) or expensively custom designed, and they steer with FINS. so the bullet has onboard electronics to steer fins.
most likely the bullet has to be shot out of a non-standard UNRIFLED barrel, which means this is just another expensive custom sniper’s rifle rather than a truly big change to the standard high caliber 50 cal platforms that are ubiquitously mounted on truck tank and helicopter platforms.
no soldier hauls around a 50 cal as a standard spray everywhere gun.
you need a tripod for shooting these things with substantial quantities of ammunition on automatic or even semi-automatic.
the ammo is too heavy and has too much kickback for accuracy and precision to be fired semi-auto without a firm base.
p.s. i love reading about the history of warfare, statecraft on onehand, and weapons and tactical developments on the other.
darpa is the warfare side of future dynamics.
if you ask me, this guided bullet is one of their less promising technologies . however, it is not insignificant.
consider many of their technology development programs—which are ‘meta’ engineering programs to incrase the pace and effectiveness of prototyping and manufacturing. as well as many of their tactical drone programs like their drone boat mounted flying drone. for deep coastal incursions.
these are the kinds of programs that are actually going to radically alter the leading edge of marginal warfare.
a better sniper bullet? well, it’s difficult to make very substantial improvements over something that is already nearly perfect…….so no. not a big deal.
also , of note, the big dog has been in development forever, is now owned by google, and is basically waiting for fuel cells of sufficient quality to be engineered.
once the fuel cells are integrated into this thing, it will be a big deal.