Magic Bullet

So somebody has come up with a prototype  laser-guided.50 caliber round. In theory, you load up your M2 and a shot that might be ten yards off at half a mile, you can get within eight inches of a target.


See the story here.


Three things pop immediately into mind. First, a good sniper can already do that with several platforms, and the thousand or two thousand yard shot has been done more than a couple of times. This new round in development is not for them, but for the relatively-untrained shooter.


Seems like it would be better to, you know, train the soldiers to hit what they are aiming at, but maybe that's not the case.


The second thing involves this quote:


"Jones said there are still some engineering problems to be sorted out that will make the bullet more practical — for example, it will have to be tough enough to be dropped off the back of a truck and still work."


Really? How about, it has to be tough enough to be fired from a fifty caliber machinegun and withstand a big explosion and acceleration from zero to three or four thousand feet/second in less than a heartbeat?


Plus how much are these rounds gonna cost? Surplus .50 cal runs what? Three or four bucks apiece? If they cost thirty bucks a round and you have some yahoo from Open Sewage Ditch, Idaho, hosing the neighborhood with 'em, how is that going to work in the new, slimmed down military budget, hmmm ... ?