Re: Rifle of the future
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Carter Mayfield</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I don't understand all the negative comments here. Yes, one should be able to range using subtended reticles, know drops, etc. as backup. But when new technology presents itself, it is generally appreciated. Rangefinders, Kestrels, Ballistic Calculators... nobody complains about those. It was only a matter of time until somebody put all the pieces together.
Think outside the box. How about a gun that is not even held by the shooter... that uses an electronic trigger and a remote display and that rides on a robotic bipod or some-such. Follow-up shots and multiple targets would probably suck, but first round hits could be hit with a higher %.
It is not hard to imagine a computer algorithm that could read mirage. A quick scan might indicate precise windage as a computer looks at mirage across all parallax adjustments.
I'm not saying somebody doesn't need those core skills for when things go bad, but why not use available technology for an edge?</div></div>
This.
The Airborne Laser for intercepting theater ballistic missiles relies on using a preliminary aiming laser that is used to calibrate any refraction error in the atmosphere and correct for it using an algorithm to correct the aim before firing the kill shot with the main beam. I have no doubt that in a similar way we could account for aiming error due to mirage. The holy grail though would be a system that actually measures the total wind component somehow an instant before the shot and automatically applies the instantaneous wind correction.
There was similar talk and complaints about this kind of stuff when fighters went from visual offset aiming techniques for CAS bomb deliveries to the new computed deliveries. Not a single pilot I know would prefer to go back to the non-computed deliveries during combat. We have systems now where for some deliveries you hold the pickle button (the bomb trigger) down, and the bomb comes off when the solution is right. I'm sure we would have something like that for rifles right now if we could accurately and near instantaneously measure the wind.
