Self-destructing bullet designed to save lives

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Plazma Inferno!, Feb 25, 2016.

  1. Plazma Inferno! Ding Ding Ding Ding Administrator

    Messages:
    4,610
    Researchers from the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center recently patented a new type of bullet capable of self-destructing after traveling over a predetermined distance.
    The idea behind the new and advanced projectile is that it might help limit the extent of collateral damage (read: innocents dying) during battle or in other operational settings and environments.

    As for how it all works, the U.S. Army explains that when one of these limited-range projectiles is fired, a pyrotechnical material is ignited at the same time and reacts with a special coating on the bullet.

    "The pyrotechnic material ignites the reactive material, and if the projectile reaches a maximum desired range prior to impact with a target, the ignited reactive material transforms the projectile into an aerodynamically unstable object.
    ...
    The transformation into an aerodynamically unstable object renders the projectile incapable of continued flight."


    http://www.networkworld.com/article...estructing-bullet-designed-to-save-lives.html
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Q-reeus Banned Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,695
    Elsewhere, another unit is working on 'smart bullets' that can defeat traditional enemy shielded positions to enable 'enhanced lethality'. Which will get the greater attention and of course extremely lucrative government funding? A clue can be found by reading through a link in that article: http://www.army.mil/article/162556/
    In particular, one brief passage:
    Yes, the fine print that matters. Not to mention questions about how sudden and reliably precise the actual transformation from lethal to innocuous could ever be. How nice to be able to trumpet such care and concern for hypothetical otherwise innocent 'collateral damage-ees' (my word 'invention'). Try selling that to the grieving and angry yet politically powerless relations of and survivors among the by now thousands of collaterally disadvantaged that 'unfortunately responded unfavorably' to 'precision' drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, etc.
     
    Plazma Inferno! likes this.
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. sweetpea Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,329
    Maybe off topic... saving collateral damage was one of the reasons for the neutron bomb wasn't it ??
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. danshawen Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,951
    This reminds me a little of the old Tom Sellick movie "Runaway". These bullets were so smart they literally could pick out their intended victim in a crowd from an imprinted heat signature obtained and stored internally before it was fired. If for whatever reason it could not find its victim after being fired, it redirected itself, essentially self-destructing without collateral loss of life.
     
  8. sweetpea Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,329
    What about those bullets designed to only kill bad guys. These bullets are so smart, that as they travel, they run a psychoanalyse of the crowd and head for the bad one.
     
  9. sculptor Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,466
    A sergeant once told me that after thousands of dollars in training and thousands of dollars in equipment the bullet that was gonna kill me only cost 6 cents.

    I wonder what these "smart" bullets cost?
     
  10. Waiter_2001 Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    459
    But doesn't the bullet continue on it's trajectory? I believe it's the casing that remains.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    What type of gun fires these bullets?

    "Well Antoine probably didn't expect Marcellus to react the way he did but he had to expect a reaction."-Pulp Fiction.
     
  11. Q-reeus Banned Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,695
    Typical of DARPA or DOD 'think-tank' bods with too much time on their hands (or in this case, U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, or ARDEC). What I missed in #2 and is the most to-the-point and telling case against such a hare-brained idea was given in the comments section below the OP linked article at:
    http://www.networkworld.com/article...estructing-bullet-designed-to-save-lives.html
    While usually frowning on regurgitation of webpage content, these two comments are worth reproducing:
    Amen.
     

Share This Page