DARPA’s “Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordinance” (EXACTO) project is “developing more accurate military artillery that will enable greater firing range, minimize the time required to engage with targets, and also help reduce missed shots that can give away the troops’ location.”
Believe it or not, DARPA recently successfully tested a self-guided, mid-flight-changing .50 cal. projectile, a technology capable of shifting its own course to counter wind conditions and other obstacles in order to ultimately hit a target.
The .50 cal. bullet utilizes optical sensors in its nose to gather in-flight information in addition to internal electronic systems that maneuver the projectile’s fins.
As you can see in the video below, DARPA has a sniper rifle intentionally aimed to the right of the target to demonstrate the ability of the EXACTO rounds to change course mid-flight in order to successfully contact the target.
This technology, in the hands of the United States military, could potentially take precision shooting to a whole new level where factors such as environmental conditions are no longer an issue on must-hit shots.
