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
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 9:31 AMHmm, 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?
Andy Todd
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 9:36 AM5th Element!
Shookey
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 3:57 PMWhat does the red button do?
Daniel
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 12:33 AMahahah all the insurgents in the middle east will just rage quit – now that the US army’s got wallhacks turned on.
Bob
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 7:15 PMBullets 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.