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Sandia’s self-guided bullet prototype can hit target a mile away. Sandia.gov Labs PR

Daylen

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Lab rats like to see their stuff used. Don't confuse the desire and thoughts of a lab rat with those of policy makers.
 

Gil223

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Interesting article, even if it is a bit unclear. From Sandia's website: "The bullet flies straight due to its aerodynamically stable design, which consists of a center of gravity that sits forward in the projectile and tiny fins that enable it to fly without spin, just as a dart does, he said.
The four-inch-long bullet has actuators that steer tiny fins that guide it to its target. (irrelevant blah, blah, blah...)
Plastic sabots provide a gas seal in the cartridge and protect the delicate fins until they drop off after the bullet emerges from the firearm’s barrel."

If the tiny fins "drop off after the bullet emerges from the firearm’s barrel", how do they guide it anywhere. Or is the misunderstanding all mine, and it is the sabots that drop off? (I just began leaning toward the second option, but exactly drops off after passing the muzzle is a bit muddy in the article. Fins is the last object word preceding "they".) Pax...
 

DrakeZ07

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Mar 26, 2011
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Lexington, Ky
I want about 200rnds.

Think they'll make it for 30-06? or maybe for pistol rounds? I wonder if the rifling in a rifle or pistol would harm or prevent the round's fins from popping out...

This could mean no more zeroing in the S&W for three hours prior to each day spent hunting :/
 

Daylen

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I want about 200rnds.

Think they'll make it for 30-06? or maybe for pistol rounds? I wonder if the rifling in a rifle or pistol would harm or prevent the round's fins from popping out...

This could mean no more zeroing in the S&W for three hours prior to each day spent hunting :/

It would have to be totally new cartridges. Look at the pictures of the projectile again, not very traditional shape.
 

Dreamer

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If they are announcing them today, they have been in field use (by select groups) for at least 5 years, and are at least 3 iterations improved in the lab now.

"Scientific breakthrough press releases" are ALWAYS "old news". The true "state of the art" is at least 10 years ahead of the consumer market, and at least 5 years ahead of anything they will admit to the public,even as speculative "scientific research".

The first "stealth planes" were flying missions in the early 1960s...
 

Daylen

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If they are announcing them today, they have been in field use (by select groups) for at least 5 years, and are at least 3 iterations improved in the lab now.

"Scientific breakthrough press releases" are ALWAYS "old news". The true "state of the art" is at least 10 years ahead of the consumer market, and at least 5 years ahead of anything they will admit to the public,even as speculative "scientific research".

The first "stealth planes" were flying missions in the early 1960s...

Are you on crack? That is not the case. I personally know of half a dozen such press releases equivalent to this one and they are generally within months of a significant testing success or the end of a phase of a project, or the end of the project if there will be no direct continuation. Back in the 90s the successor to the "Star Wars" program had press releases within a month of tests. Where do you get this idea from?
 

Gil223

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There have been some interesting innovations in ammunition for personal weapons in the last decade. Prior to this time-period, the last major innovation I can recall in an ammunition/firearm combo, was in the early 1960s, when MB Associates developed and marketed the GyroJet family of firearms. As I recall (and understand that my powers of recall ain't what they used to be), the ammmunition was a "caseless round" (in that it had no separate "bullet") - it was a solid-fuel propelled projectile. Stabilizing spin was imparted via 3 canted ports on the rear of the projectile. The weapon that fired it used a forward-mounted underhammer striking system that drove the round rearward onto a fixed firing pin, and the departing projectile reset the underhammer for the next round. It was touted at the time to shoot a perfectly flat trajectory for 500 yards, but after 500 yards it had a very quick, very steep downward trajectory (it dropped like a rock). I also seem to recall that it had some serious problems with misfires, and when it did fire it lacked practical accuracy. As a consequence, it disappeared after only a brief marketing period... but it was an "innovative concept" at the time. Much like Sandia's winged wonder. ;) Pax...
 
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09jisaac

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Louisa, Kentucky
There have been some interesting innovations in ammunition for personal weapons in the last decade. Prior to this time-period, the last major innovation I can recall in an ammunition/firearm combo, was in the early 1960s, when MB Associates developed and marketed the GyroJet family of firearms. As I recall (and understand that my powers of recall ain't what they used to be), the ammmunition was a "caseless round" (in that it had no separate "bullet") - it was a solid-fuel propelled projectile. Stabilizing spin was imparted via 3 canted ports on the rear of the projectile. The weapon that fired it used a forward-mounted underhammer striking system that drove the round rearward onto a fixed firing pin, and the departing projectile reset the underhammer for the next round. It was touted at the time to shoot a perfectly flat trajectory for 500 yards, but after 500 yards it had a very quick, very steep downward trajectory (it dropped like a rock). I also seem to recall that it had some serious problems with misfires, and when it did fire it lacked practical accuracy. As a consequence, it disappeared after only a brief marketing period... but it was an "innovative concept" at the time. Much like Sandia's winged wonder. ;) Pax...

The history channel clip that I watched said that many times they didn't over come the spring tension of the hammer. Also, they didn't have ANY power our to about 10 yds. The round would just bounce off of someone, that is how slow they were traveling. It was caseless. It was designed to be able to be fired underwater. That is about all I can remember of that.
 

since9

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Jan 14, 2010
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Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
...an ammunition/firearm combo, was in the early 1960s, when MB Associates developed and marketed the GyroJet family of firearms. As I recall (and understand that my powers of recall ain't what they used to be), the ammmunition was a "caseless round" (in that it had no separate "bullet") - it was a solid-fuel propelled projectile. Stabilizing spin was imparted via 3 canted ports on the rear of the projectile. The weapon that fired it used a forward-mounted underhammer striking system that drove the round rearward onto a fixed firing pin, and the departing projectile reset the underhammer for the next round. It was touted at the time to shoot a perfectly flat trajectory for 500 yards, but after 500 yards it had a very quick, very steep downward trajectory (it dropped like a rock). I also seem to recall that it had some serious problems with misfires, and when it did fire it lacked practical accuracy. As a consequence, it disappeared after only a brief marketing period... but it was an "innovative concept" at the time. Much like Sandia's winged wonder. ;) Pax...

It didn't disappear at all, and is standard issue for all U.S. Air Force survival kits found in ejection seat aircraft. I've fired it twice during survival training.

It is not, however, a "weapon." It's a signal device capable of penetrating thick jungle canopy. Turns out the self-stabilizing round can hit all sorts of branches and because it's rocket-propelled, it keeps on going, whereas a flare gun's projectile would never penetrate the canopy.
 
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