EXACTO Demonstrates First-Ever Guided .50-Caliber Bullets

DARPA Website

Published on Jul 14, 2014


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 initially 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 aim.

The EXACTO program is developing new approaches and advanced capabilities to improve the range and accuracy of sniper systems beyond the current state of the art. For more information, please visit the program page at go.usa.gov...

In truth there not giving away a lot of details about how this .50 cal bullet can change targets in mid flight. they only say it uses some kind of optical tracking....maybe a laser? Anyway this kind of tech would turn even the most marginal riflemen into a one shot one kill totally deadly sniper!

Imagine never missing a target even from a cold barrel first shot--- as long as you can keep that target...even a fast moving target--- in your crosshairs--- you will hit what your shooting at every time...

Now this is truly a major breakthrough in ammunition, a tech that has basically remained unchanged for the last 100 years...

The modern battlefield gets more and more dangerous every day --- But so to do the bad guys right?

nice!
so now there is a way to kill a civilian without hurting the bad guy who may be in the vicinity?

those bastards must be really satisfied.

a reply to: demus

Joke if you want... but this is one of those things that really will take chance out of the equitation.

with this a sniper doesn't have to worry about a civie walking in front of the bad guy... in flight he can make that bullet miss then take said bad dude out with a follow up...

With this kind of control--- to be able to hit only what you intend too... this really will save a lot of innocent lives!

a reply to: HardCorps

I wonder what the price tag on that item will be. I imagine you could couple this with one of those fancy new scopes that do facial recognition from more than a mile off ... and simply set everything to automatic. Wind is the biggest factor at such ranges and it takes only minor adjustments to make the critical difference in a hit or miss.

I don't wanna get hit with a .50 cal round. Talk about ruining your whole day.

Meanwhile the entire US economy is going to collapse in our lifetime. Gotta love these idiot highly educated engineers that are designing this stuff. One day humanity will have to say enough is enough as far as technology and progress. How much MORE do we need??????????? The Earth is bleeding and all we as humans can do is come up with more lethal ways to kill each other.

I guarantee you next we'll hear about body armor that can stop this type of projectile or some sort of force field around a soldier that can deflect this technology. That's how it always works. Funny thing is this wont change a damn thing fighting an enemy like ISIS. They WANT to die for the cause. Whether they get hit with a .50 cal or blow themselves up it doesn't matter.

a reply to: Snarl

It's not like you'd need a whole lot of these...
I'm mean your not gonna shoot them out of a Ma-Duce... and a Sniper doesn't need all that many...

Still it's only a matter of time until they can make these things smaller... maybe a .308.
if they could do that I can see them becoming standard issue to all...

That is some pretty incredible technology. I read about work on guided bullets for 0.50 and 20mm probably about 15 years ago.
You need to make a guidance system and flight control system small enough and tough enough to go on a bullet, it's like a miniature guided missile and probably fairly expensive so would only be used when really needed. If they could add a propulsion system to increase range it could be like a magic bullet.

a reply to: HardCorps

I can see these weapons systems springing up around the perimeters of rich SOBs as preps for a SHTF scenario. They're probably already selling like hotcakes in those circles.

Disclaimer: This is ATS right? Gotta juice the thread with a little CT.

a reply to: JimTSpock
I posted a second Vid...
in that one they show a cross-section of this bullet...
and yup it looks just like the inside of my laptop... Only a lot more scary...

betchya 50p the public don't get none but the police will

a reply to: Snarl

Come on now... Wouldn't you just love to take a box of these out to a shooting range...
think of all the beer you could win with bets on hitting impossible targets

a reply to: aightism2

Bet you 50p even if you and I could go down and buy a box of these...
we couldn't afford what they must cost...
maybe we could pool our money together and but just one.

I bet just one of those bullets cost more than a whole round of bulk/mass mini-gun spray all over the place ammo can.



Wish they would describe how they manage to change directory mid-flight that's the only interesting thing to me.

a reply to: HardCorps

I bet the gov can't wait to start using these on citizens.

They should be working on tazers that won't cause heart attacks.

Now running from the police is even harder.

a reply to: Iamthatbish

Lol,yeah-or harder to run from Hillary's hit squad.

We really need to be afraid. On any day and any topic we as a mass get so bogged down with the minutia that we make no effort to make change.

Our petty bickering is holding us hostage more than the govt.


a reply to: FalcoFan

This won't go mainstream. All DARPA does is improve the military's efficiency in killing... Well, killing everything. DARPA has many more research projects far more dangerous than this, most of which we will probably never know about. It's scary when you consider the stuff that they are actually willing to tell you about. Imagine what's kept under wraps. I'm not afraid of terrorists, activists or diseases. I'm afraid of DARPA.

a reply to: SlowNail
From what has been happening, we need to be afraid of our own government.