Will Smart Guns Become The Norm?

The Armatix Smart System consists of a pistol and a watch that controls gun access and use. The gun will only fire if it is within range of this watch. Armatrix

‘We Need The iPhone Of Guns’: Will Smart Guns Transform The Gun Industry? -- Washington Post

One of California’s largest firearm stores recently added a peculiar new gun to its shelves. It requires an accessory: a black waterproof watch.

The watch’s primary purpose is not to provide accurate time, though it does. The watch makes the gun think. Electronic chips inside the gun and the watch communicate with each other. If the watch is within close reach of the gun, a light on the grip turns green. Fire away. No watch means no green light. The gun becomes a paperweight.

A dream of gun-control advocates for decades, the Armatix iP1 is the country’s first smart gun. Its introduction is seen as a landmark in efforts to reduce gun violence, suicides and accidental shootings. Proponents compare smart guns to automobile air bags — a transformative add-on that gun owners will demand. But gun rights advocates are already balking, wondering what happens if the technology fails just as an intruder breaks in.

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My Comment: I doubt that smart guns will be the norm for the military .... but the technology is intriguing.

U.S. Army Is Starting To Test 'Smart Rifles'

US Military Is Testing Gun That Could Turn ANYONE Into An Ace Sniper -- Daily Mail

* Users simply 'tag' their target using a button near the trigger
* Smart rifle can then work out the range and weather conditions before shooting
* Can even send target details to other nearby rifles - and be controlled by an iPad app

The US military is testing a radical 'smart rifle' that can automatically aim itself, it has been revealed.

The army is believed to have acquired six $27,000 'smart rifles' from Texas firm Tracking Point.

It uses a built in computer to aim at a target, and can even 'lock on' top targets and automatically track them.

Oren Schauble, a marketing official with the Austin, Texas-based company, confirmed the military bought a handful of them in recent months for evaluation.

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More News On The U.S. Army Now Starting To Test 'Smart Rifles'

U.S. Military Begins Testing ‘Smart’ Rifles -- Defense Tech
US military begins purchasing and testing smart rifles -- Daily Caller
U.S. military begins testing ‘smart’ rifles -- FOX News/Military.com
The US Army Is Now Field-Testing Smart Rifles -- Motherboard
US Army buys 6 self-aiming smart rifles for evaluation -- Geek

A Bullet That Can Fix it's Own Trajectory

Smart Ammunition: Left, Fight, On Target -- The Economist

MILITARY snipers are competitive types. There is an ongoing and grisly contest between them to see who can kill an enemy soldier from the farthest distance away. The present record is held by Craig Harrison, a corporal in the British Army's Household Cavalry, who managed to kill two Taliban soldiers from 2,475 metres in November 2009. That was a slight improvement on the previous record, held by Rob Furlong, a Canadian soldier also fighting in Afghanistan, who managed to shoot his enemy in the chest from a distance of 2,430 metres in 2002.

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My Comment: For snipers .... this is going to be a game changer.

New Smart Weapons Will Not Use GPS

DARPA Seeks To Wean Smart Weapons Off GPS With Hybrid Inertial Navigation System-On-A-Chip -- Military & Aerospace

ARLINGTON, Va., 18 April 2012. Navigation and guidance experts at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., are trying to reduce the military's reliance on Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite guidance for advanced munitions, mid- and long-range missiles, and other weapons by creating a navigation-system-on-a-chip that combines traditional and atomic inertial guidance technology.

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More News On DARPA Research To Fins An Alternative To GPS For Smart Weapons

DARPA wants navigation chip to guide smart weapons -- Defense Systems
C-SCAN For GPS-Denied Areas -- Shadow Spear
DARPA exploring miniature, atomic sensor systems as alternative to GPS -- Network World
New sensor sought to enable military missions in GPS-denied areas -- Physorg
Wanted: Atomic inertial navigation system -- UPI

My Comment: I guess advances in jamming GPS signals are raising concerns in some quarters.