The .50 caliber round uses a real-time optical guidance system to home in on target

Jul 15, 2014 12:17 GMT  ·  By

Projectiles with “intelligent” guiding systems have been around for decades, much to the dismay of everyone involved in wars, no matter the scale. However, similar trajectory-changing capabilities never made it to bullets, until now.

DARPA has introduced the EXACTO .50-caliber round, which happens to be the first ever small-caliber bullet capable of changing direction mid-flight.

It won't be able to do it much, or at sharp angles, because of the speed and the short time it will have before it actually reaches the target.

The secret lies in the real-time optical guidance system that allows the flight path to change and the projectile to hone in one target in spite of unexpected wind gusts or other weather conditions.

Those are the main factors that the EXACTO is meant to compensate for. You won't be able to shoot around road corners or cliffs, or whatever else, but you won't have to worry about storms. And with some luck and care, you could even shoot around pillars or corners if the target is close enough to them, or on a relatively straight trajectory in relation to them.

Sounds a bit morbid, since better weaponry shouldn't exactly be something to swoon over, but it is a sad fact of life that human society isn't utopic and, because of that, wars could still break out.

That said, in order for the guidance system to kick in, the EXACTO needs to be fired from at least 2 kilometers away, or 1.2 miles. During live testing, the bullet was seen veering and striking accurately over an undisclosed distance.

According to the organization, sniper systems should gain a longer range during both day and night. The technology still needs some refinement before it is put to use though, since system-level live fire testing hasn't been carried out so far.

The EXACTO .50 caliber bullet will definitely add a new dimension to those assassination, political or otherwise, that happen but no one really likes to talk about. Mostly because it will be hard to accurately pinpoint the source of the shot.

We can already see action movie directors planning to include this complication into the plot of the next shoot-em-up thriller. Not that a new weapon can make Hollywood action flicks any worse, or better, as the case may be.

DARPA hasn't said exactly how long it will be before the EXACTO bullet is ready to be requisitioned by the military.