laser guided bullet Sandia labs

[Tacit Blue]

I remember hearing about this rumor awhile back. It didn't receive that much attention when it came out. It's incredible that they developed this technology on such a small scale for small arms.


"“It’s a bullet that can change its flight path so that it can more accurately hit a target at long range,” said Red Jones, one of the two researchers, in an interview with ABC News. He and Brian Kast assembled a small team to work on the project. Both Jones and Kast happen to be hunters.
Here’s how it works: Conventional gun barrels have grooves in them that set a bullet spinning for stability. Watch Eli Manning or Tom Brady throw a tight spiral at Sunday’s Super Bowl and you’ll see the same principle at work.
The spiral helps, but a bullet still loses altitude and — even at supersonic speed — can be thrown slightly off course. Jones and Kast replaced the grooves with tiny fins, which can correct the bullet’s path in midair so that it will follow a laser beam from the soldier’s gun sight.
Jones said the new bullet can make course corrections 30 times per second — and while conventional bullets might miss the target by 30 feet, their patent says the guided bullet would hit within eight inches of its target."

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/02/sandia-labs-self-guided-bullet-for-future-soldiers/

[MrPlutonium]

If it follows the beam, does that mean you have to wrestle the gun back on target before impact or else it always hits high?

[calaveras]

If it follows the beam, does that mean you have to wrestle the gun back on target before impact or else it always hits high?

This. Your gun is always going to be on target better before your shoot rather than after.

This might work on super long range shots. But you would need a very powerful laser with very little diffusion, and it would need to be pointed exactly straight with your line of sight. And then you would need to get your .50 back on target before the bullet impact (maybe 2 seconds of flight time).

This seems like more hassle than it's worth.

[Tacit Blue]

This. Your gun is always going to be on target better before your shoot rather than after.

This might work on super long range shots. But you would need a very powerful laser with very little diffusion, and it would need to be pointed exactly straight with your line of sight. And then you would need to get your .50 back on target before the bullet impact (maybe 2 seconds of flight time).

This seems like more hassle than it's worth.

I think it's odd that Sandia used the Somali pirate situation where the Capt was taken hostage like that( Maersk Alabama). Maybe perhaps the Seals field tested the round on that terrorist? Then again a standard .308 with a thermal imager scope can do the same thing.

[CrippledPidgeon]

I think it's odd that Sandia used the Somali pirate situation where the Capt was taken hostage like that( Maersk Alabama). Maybe perhaps the Seals field tested the round on that terrorist? Then again a standard .308 with a thermal imager scope can do the same thing.

The story that I heard from a reputable source is that the Seals shot .308 (according to the less-reputable wikipedia, out of Mk. 11s, which I'm not going to dispute). The trick was that the boat where the Capt was being held hostage was being slowly drawn in over several hours so that the pirates didn't realize that they were well within range of the SEALs' rifles.

In any rate, the successful kills were less due to technology, and more to good-ole trickery and patience. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the skills of the shooters, but it was part of the process to ensure that only the bad guys got the pointy end of the bullets.

[calaveras]

I think it's odd that Sandia used the Somali pirate situation where the Capt was taken hostage like that( Maersk Alabama). Maybe perhaps the Seals field tested the round on that terrorist? Then again a standard .308 with a thermal imager scope can do the same thing.

The pirates were shot by 7.62x51 mm rifles at a range of 30 yards. Assuming an average velocity of 2600 fps over that distance, the bullet flight time was 0.035 of a second. Even if the Seals were using lasers, how were they supposed to get the lasers on target in that amount of time?

I suppose the bullets might be able to be guided by separate lasers, aimed by spotters and not attached to the rifle. But then, the bullet would have to do very large adjustments to align itself with a laser that is feet away from the bore axis.

Regardless, in a world where the Remington TrackingPoint is a thing that exists, there is no place for a laser guided bullet.

[Wildhawk66]

I think everyone is forgetting that the scope mated to this system is likely as technologically advanced as the projectile. We have already seen scopes that can lock onto a target and will only allow the rifle to fire when the shot will hit the point the scope is locked on to. Why not a scope that that can lock on a target and automatically adjust the laser to stay on the target as the rifle recoils. This is cutting edge technology and my guess is the engineers have thought of this issue already.

[MrPlutonium]

I sense a return to the gyrojet with this one...

[bbguns44]

Sounds like BS to me. Even with a .50 bullet, the amount of space the
servo logic & actuators & detectors would take up means no room left
for any solid metal. How is it going to penetrate ?

[thenodnarb]

Sounds like BS to me. Even with a .50 bullet, the amount of space the
servo logic & actuators & detectors would take up means no room left
for any solid metal. How is it going to penetrate ?

This.

I don't think its possible, ever. If it turns out to be true, I will be totally impressed. But then, the ammo would have to cost hundreds of dollars a round. A 2,000 lb laser guided bomb is one thing. An individual bullet is another.

[todd2968]

It may be possible but to fast for someone to actually steer it. Unless the rifle it came out of is the guide source. Imagine one man makes the shot and another paints the target the bullet would just have to get within the beam for a course correction. You could shoot around something