The Future is Now! Homing Bullets Patented!

[II2]

Do you think anyone but me has realized that if they worked to make guns less accurate instead of more accurate then there would be less deaths in the world?

Tell that to Genghis Khan.

Jokes aside, it wouldn't reduce the number of deaths, just up the ante on the munition expenditure and make warfare that much more expensive, for the same results.

 

[gigastrike]

Sounds more like something they'll give to snipers than general infantry or even tank-mounted machine guns. Probably isn't going to change general warfare much.

 

[WolfThomas]

They don't seem to be that great an idea, the majority of bullets used in war is for suppression, they seem to work fine as is.

 

[Thaluikhain]

True, Still it depresses me when I see people developing new weapons.. i'm not a big fan of killing because of greed and disagreements... The cold war could have been avoided completely if they just didn't develop bombs of that size...

Yeah, they could have a hot war instead.

It's all very well and good to sya people shouldn't be spending money on fancy new weapons, but that only works if everyone decides not to do it. As long as somebody does, everyone else has to.

 

[Esotera]

So this isn't outlawed by the Geneva convention, but certain calibres of bullets are? I was under the impression that soldiers relied more on calling in air support these days if they wanted precision, but I guess every tool helps.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So this isn't outlawed by the Geneva convention, but certain calibres of bullets are? I was under the impression that soldiers relied more on calling in air support these days if they wanted precision, but I guess every tool helps.

What calibre bullets are banned by the Geneva conventions?

And...what has air support got to do with precision? Is it not more generally called in the same way you'd use artillery?

...

Would the targetting laser on this actually be attached to a weapon? I could imagine one person with the laser and another firing in the general area, but having them two attached to each other might have problems.

 

[Fatboy_41]

Stepping away from the warfare aspect here, this could do wonders for policing/SWAT style operations. One of the biggest worries in those situations, especially is hostages are involved, is collateral damage. The ability to have a round make minute corrections mid-flight could mean the difference between a successful operation and a dead hostage or civilian.

 

[michael87cn]

Nothing good can come of this. Also, won't happen.

Missiles aren't equal to bullets. Homing Missiles aren't cheap. Bullets are. Homing bullets won't be cheap. Homing bullets won't become common.

Also, if they DO. I call the "its not my fault my bullet killed the wrong person, it was DEFECTIVE" Bs now.

 

[The Funslinger]

"What is your biggest hope for future tech that seems reasonably plausible to be invented in the near future?"

Some sort of device that stops idiots inventing homing-bullets.

Indeed. It'll turn all warfare into full on butchery. Casualties on both sides will sky-rocket with the "if we fire first, we can't lose!" fashion of thinking, and they're actually taking the skill out of marksmanship.

This pisses me off on so many levels. It better turn out to be a shit idea that goes nowhere.

I will reduce us back to the WWI level of warefare, both sides will dig in to such an extent that they have to charge the other side in mass numbers to counter the superior weapons fire; in the case of WWI it was the machine gun, now it's homing bullets.

Also they're fifty cal rounds, not many mobile infantry weapons use fifty cal rounds. so the chance of an infantryman coming into contact with one of those bad boys is pretty low unless they're fighting crazy prepared people.

Yeah, 50 cal is how it starts. This technology would obviously progress. It's the start of something bad to my mind.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

All I want to be invented is a way to summon objects with your mind. It is reasonably plausible because all it would need is wireless in your brain and miniature jetpacks. Lots and lots of miniature jetpacks.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Oh no! Help! I've got to get one of these before it's too late, but only one, because I only have one mother! Ah, I'm making a joke, but you knew that. But seriously, I'm under tribulation and there is possibility of harm. The man I offended moves to the left or right, never forward, but he advances all the same (my theory is minuscule movements during the large left hops), and I hope to receive from him bells, but in all likelihood it's likely to be a coffin. Because of his irregular movement, I need a projectile that can sufficiently match the unpredictability of a wily giraffe, and this sounds like just the ticket. I cannot order ammunition, due to the law, but I figure if I have a gun I will find ammo like a mother finds her young.

You have the strangest posts i've ever read.

OT: I'd like to see a bomb that disintegrates all life on earth, it'll be a shortcut to the logical conclusion to the parable of the human race.

 

[FalloutJack]

We all love our red-dot laser sights on our rifles and LMG's when playing the likes of Battlefield and Modern Warfare, but what if that reflex scope would allow you to fire homing bullets? It isn't possible in gaming, outside of hacking or modding, but it may soon be possible in reality.

A lab in New Mexico is in the process of taking the same principles of laser guided homing missiles that we have now and miniaturizing them into a .50 caliber bullet. Using a laser dot as a target, the bullet is capable of making 30 corrections to its trajectory in-flight. Apparently, the use of homing bullets in real life would make a single soldier more efficient, since he would use less ammunition from misses.


Here's the article:

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/technology/sandia-labs-bullet-doesnt-miss

I probably don't need to tell you how expensive it would be to fully stock an LMG ammo box with these bullets, but the fact that we're coming out with them shows how quickly weapons and ammunition can change today.

For discussion: What is your biggest hope for future tech that seems reasonably plausible to be invented in the near future?

I seem to recall there being a movie about robots and homing bullets that ARE robots.

OT: The full-prosthetic body, of course. Mechanical limb replacements exist. The ability to drive them with your mind exist. The next logical step is actual organs and braincases. Full-body conversion - a la Ghost in the Shell - is not unrealistic. However, I will wear clothes.

 

[The Funslinger]

"What is your biggest hope for future tech that seems reasonably plausible to be invented in the near future?"

Some sort of device that stops idiots inventing homing-bullets.

Indeed. It'll turn all warfare into full on butchery. Casualties on both sides will sky-rocket with the "if we fire first, we can't lose!" fashion of thinking, and they're actually taking the skill out of marksmanship.

This pisses me off on so many levels. It better turn out to be a shit idea that goes nowhere.

I will reduce us back to the WWI level of warefare, both sides will dig in to such an extent that they have to charge the other side in mass numbers to counter the superior weapons fire; in the case of WWI it was the machine gun, now it's homing bullets.

Also they're fifty cal rounds, not many mobile infantry weapons use fifty cal rounds. so the chance of an infantryman coming into contact with one of those bad boys is pretty low unless they're fighting crazy prepared people.

Yeah, 50 cal is how it starts. This technology would obviously progress. It's the start of something bad to my mind.

And the worst thing is that unlike the nuke it doesn't scare us, the nuclear bomb was a turning point, it scared us when we used it; to such a degree that we regressed back to soldiers and tanks, we never used that weapon again.

This, this will be seen as an 'acceptable evil in warfare'

Hopefully when insurgent forces inevitably get their hands on some and start mowing down soldiers by the garrison with guerrilla warfare, people will wise the fuck up. Hopefully before I go into the Royal Marines. I'm a good shot, but that won't mean shit against homing bullets.

The majority of shots fired in war miss, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.