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Army Researchers Patent Self-destructing Bullet Designed To Save Lives (networkworld.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center recently patented a new type of bullet capable of self-destructing after traveling over a predetermined distance. The idea behind the new and advanced projectile is that it might help limit the extent of collateral damage (read: innocents dying) during battle or in other operational settings and environments. As for how it all works, the U.S. Army explains that when one of these limited-range projectiles is fired, a pyrotechnical material is ignited at the same time and reacts with a special coating on the bullet. "The pyrotechnic material ignites the reactive material, and if the projectile reaches a maximum desired range prior to impact with a target," the Army writes, "the ignited reactive material transforms the projectile into an aerodynamically unstable object." The researchers add that the desired range of its limited-range projectile can be adjusted by switching up the reactive materials used. Put simply, the Army has come up with what effectively amounts to a self-destructing bullet that is rendered ineffective over certain distances.
and if it does hit someone I guess it explodes inside them instead
>self-destructing bullet that is rendered ineffective
self-destructing bullet that is rendered less ineffective
There, fixed that for you.
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So you can lug around 40 pounds of short range ammo, and if you want to do a distance shot you're screwed, or you can lug around normal ammo and take any shot you like? Hmm, which would I choose... ?
I'm sure someone in the Army has read the Hague Convention of 1899, Declaration III which prohibits "the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body".
Unless these things have a built in kill switch which causes them not to explode upon entering a human body, I'd think these things would be illegal for normal warfare.
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But it sure is a neat way of getting rid of the evidence...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The point of war is to cause so much damage to your opponent that they give up whatever they were fighting for or you wipe them out completely, having a safe war where only the fighting soldiers die in designated warzones is utterly pointless, you might as well sort things out with a game of football or something. If we really don't want civilian casualties we need to drop the pretense of concepts like "precision" bombing / strikes, safe-T-bullets and/or whatever other NERF-coated garbage makes war a desirable THING to keep doing forever.
War is Hell and we shouldn't want to fight it. Period.
Self destructing spears, axes
Certainly not destructive, just range limited. Actually, makes a lot of sense, especially during training where you'd like to keep bullets inside a well defined area.
The chemicals they're using for this sound similar to the ones used in tracer ammo. Tracer ammo is notorious for causing unintentional fires, and if this stuff has to burn hot enough to melt the lead bullets I can only imagine how effective it must be at starting fires.
i def want my rounds to render themselves uselss when i am shooting to defend m'lady from jocks, this will just mean i need to sigh, draw my katana and..
Is there any data on how much of an issue this is? Even in a war zone? It seems like in an area of active engagement, stray bullets from a distance would be on the low end of things that cause collateral damage. I mean, we have bombs getting dropped from aircraft and missiles being shot from drones. I'd be willing to bet that even a tiny increase in the specificity of those types of weapons would save far more lives than limiting the lethal range of bullets.
An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
Does this mean I can start firing my M16 in the air like those crazy arabs do?
We have Very Special Fuckwits in my city, who every New Years and Independence Day, go outside and shoot their rifles into the air, in lieu of fireworks. (Because "gravity is just a theory.") If the bullets would fall apart at apogee, that'd be great, and if they explode all pretty-like, that's even better.
And please understand, even if it's ten dollars a bullet, that's ok. We'll pay any cost as an alternative to [contemptuous sneer]education.[/contemptuous sneer]
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I can see this plot already:
- Constitution protects your arms, but says nothing bout ammunition!
- Citizens allowed to use only this handicapped ammunition.
- Martial law in action, citizens have no chances of standing their ground.
I wonder who can be behind this noble 'invention'...
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Note the only reason you patent an invention is to *prevent* it being used (without your consent).
I mean, not being pedantic, but... the bullet is designed to take lives, but more specifically.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Opening this research for usage by everyone interested would be a much more rational way to do things if saving lives is the focus here...
I'm still waiting for an M16/M4 rifle that doesn't jam often.
Its been done. HK416 type stuff with a piston rather than direct gas.
Just replace the metal part of the bullet with a paintball, and it will save even more lives.
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Now we have a reason why guns have limited ranges in Warhammer 40K! At last I can tell people it IS realistic as the bullets self destruct beyond a certain distance for the safety of civilians!
...you can begin by not invading so many countries, eh.
/Bonus: you'll save a lot of money.
//Double-bonus: you can use that money to pay for single-payer medical care.
///Double-plus-bonus: single-payer will save you even more money.
US army are nothing but gleeful child murderers ... I read it on Slashdot
And within the range you get a reacting bullet in your gut.
Bullets that don't shoot civilians in the background, nice idea. But if ammo is made for a given distance, in what circumstance will someone using a weapon have the time to perform the reload required to change their clip based on their distance to target? If you're going into something like a hostage situation, it's a valid skill to be able to assess friend/foe and pull a trigger faster than the guy who doesn't hesitate before shooting.
If you were firing these would they not leave a material trail in the air pointing straight at your location? I can't imagine that that is a particularly desirable outcome...
I always wondered why the range of Terran marines was so shitty, they must use these bullets.
I'm really glad the US Army patented this concept. I would hate for an invading force to show up in America with similar bullets that will disintegrate when they've missed our National Guard troops. Instead, the invading force's bullets will continue to travel for another two miles or so and deliver kinetic energy to whatever object they impact.
Thank you, US Army, for ensuring the overall lethality of enemy bullets! Bravo!
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It was not simply a failure to keep it clean. Armalite designed their AR-15 (militarized by the Army into the M16) to use a very clean burning powder. This appropriate powder may have also been used during evaluation, not 100% sure. However for mass production the Army went with the old ball powder it had been (since late WW2 ?). The powder left far more residue behind. For a direct gas operating mechanism this was a bad idea and greatly increased the amount of fouling and cleaning required.
There *may* have been another problem. I haven't read about it in any official history (like the powder issue above) but I once worked for a man who had been once of the very first Marines sent to the DaNang area and had to trade their M14s in for M16s. Besides the powder residue problem he claimed there was some mechanical component that would break if there was too much full auto fire (heat). There was no corrective action, you had to see the armorer when you got back to base. He said they carried a lot of extra grenades as a result of all this.
Self-destructing bullets are well and good, but if you really want safety then you want to get away from bullets entirely.
What you want is to release the swarm of 10,000 mosquito-sized drones, each carrying a hypodermic needle full of concentrated THC. These will be guaranteed not to kill anyone, while at the same time making it easy for the police to arrest anyone they need to arrest.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
I agree. We should have nuked them instead.
"In 2009, a group of Italian scientists affiliated with the watchdog group New Weapons Research Committee (NWRC) pronounced DIME wounds "untreatable" because the powdered tungsten cannot be removed surgically"
I have to wonder if it is not against some UN convention to have a weapon which makes wound intentionally non healable or inoperable. If it isn't it should be.
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If this technology works, I can see it being required for all guns in the future. You don't need long range to defend yourself against a mugger or home intruder, right?
A bullet designed to save lives? Sounds like poor design to me.
I want a bullet that leaves a cavity that's shaped like an American Flag! Would have to be a 12ga round......'Murica
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
How long until the proposal is floated that civilians can only have bullets that self destruct beyond say, 20 feet?
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Imagine the problem space for a moment: take a random distribution of 1 to N people where nominal person 1 is the target. So basically make the set of physical arrangements of 1 person in a space (which is singular), all the arrangements of 2 people in a space (given a selected positional accuracy), 3 people, etc. Now shoot bullets toward the target in each of those arrangements, with a certain accuracy, to get some statistics on the spreads.
Ok, in many of those does a self-destructing bullet help? Well, it doesn't help in any case where there's anyone in front of the range of the target. We also have to assume there is a deliberate delay to deal with measurement and timing accuracy, so it also doesn't help anyone located within X of the range of the target. So basically, it only helps in the case when the shooter misses the target, is beyond a certain range behind the target, and in-line with the target. In all other cases the bullet still kills the person.
And of course, this isn't a problem that needs to be solved. People don't get killed because they're standing behind the target, they get killed because *the shooter thinks they are the target*. This is like working on a system to stop people driving into the ocean - this happens, but there's other problems that need to be solved first.
As your benevolent neighboring country we assure you we would never invade a nation with weapons that destroy themselves.
There is a provision against bullets that are invisible to X-rays, at least. I don't know how that would apply to DIME.
However, war is going to cause a lot of wounds that can't be fixed, no matter what.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes