Here’s something you don’t want fired in your direction: a “smart” gun that fires bullets that can travel through walls, exploding once they’re inside. It’s the accuracy of a rifle with the explosiveness of a grenade launcher.
The XM25 rifle is about to begin testing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it sounds pretty nuts.
As the 25-millimetre round is fired, the gunsight sends a radio signal to a chip inside the bullet, telling it the precise distance to the target. A spiral groove inside the barrel makes the bullet rotate as it travels, and as it also contains a magnetic transducer, this rotation through the Earth’s magnetic field generates an alternating current. A patent granted to the bullet’s maker, Alliant Techsystems, reveals that the chip uses fluctuations in this current to count each revolution and, as it knows the distance covered in one spin, it can calculate how far it has traveled.
And this, my friends, is why I stay on the good side of the US Military. [New Scientist via io9]
Steve
June 10, 2009 at 9:31 AM
Hmm, I may be missing the pun on this one but that isn’t how I know the XM25. What is with the pic from the movie that escapes me?
Report PermalinkAndy Todd
June 10, 2009 at 9:36 AM
5th Element!
Report PermalinkShookey
June 10, 2009 at 3:57 PM
What does the red button do?
Report PermalinkDaniel
June 12, 2009 at 12:33 AM
ahahah all the insurgents in the middle east will just rage quit – now that the US army’s got wallhacks turned on.
Report PermalinkBob
June 12, 2009 at 7:15 PM
Bullets travelling through walls. Nothing new there. Rifling grooves (usually 6 or 8), Nothing new there either. And a 25 mm bore on a RIFLE ? That just doesn’t sound right. Testing a weapon designed to kill an obscured combatant, in an urban warzone seems like an invitation to yet another source of collateral damage.
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