美军方研制子弹能自动跟踪目标

Thanks to new government research by Sandia National Laboratories, American troops might be getting help in the form of self-guided* bullets.

Sandia National Laboratories announced yesterday that a successful prototype of the bullet was created and tested at distances of 2,000 meters.

Sandia's new technology features a dart*-like "smart bullet" that allows for unprecedented* movement while in flight.

Working with laser designators*, each bullet measures around 10 centimeters in length. An optical sensor* can be seen at the tip of the round, which can detect a laser beam that would be used to "paint" a target.

Inside, the bullets are able to communicate with the different sensors that are gathered via sensors which also communicate with the bullet allowing it to steer and move to its target.

Chief among the new bullets' abilities is the way in which the guided rounds can actually "self correct" its path 30 times a second and at the same time traveling at the speed of sound.

Given that bullets, by nature, have been engineered to travel in as straight a line as possible, the entire design of Sandia's bullets needed to be re-engineered.

For example, you may notice that when you throw a football the spin* achieved after the ball is properly thrown allows for it to travel farther and faster. The concept is similar here, only in order to allow the bullet to change course, the researchers needed to get rid of that spin, and instead utilized tiny fins* similar to that of a dart.

According to Sandia, which conducted computer aerodynamic modeling tests, unguided bullets under real-world conditions could miss a target more than 1,000 meters away by 9 meters, but a guided bullet would get within 0.2 meters.

Sandia's new technology could be supplied to not only the military, but law enforcement agencies and perhaps even commercially to recreational shooters such as hunters.

self-guided 自导的

dart 飞镖

unprecedented 没有先例的

designator 指示器

optical sensor 光感应器

spin 旋转

fin 毛刺