A Mechanical bullet, which will turn in flight is well within our technical capabilities. The premise is to have a bullet, which is preset to turn a corner can be achieved thru a small gear setting on the bullet or a preset finger on the barrel or in the chamber which can be dialed in prior to discharge. Picture a bullet and shell, directly above the shell on near the bottom of the bullet would be a small gear, which could be turned with your finger nail, each gear indentation would be equivalent to approximately 10 yards, written on the bullet shell would be a scale embossed, stamped or laser printed. The soldier would estimate from his night vision goggles, weapon sight or head gear the distance from his position where the turn needed to occur so the bullet would turn. The bullet would zoom along and as it did the ram air in front of the bullet would take in a little of the relative wind created from its flight forward. There is to be small tiny holes around the front of the bullets head, when the ram air goes thru those holes it will move that gear back a little at a time, as the ram air progresses in the steady stream it will move the gear a click, at a time, until it is back to center and at that point the gear would dislodge and move towards the side of the intended turn. It would stay there for a second, or the time it takes for the bullet to make a 90-degree turn. At which point its planned obsolescence would occur and the part would fail and fall off. The bullet would then continue on its new trajectory. The spin of the bullet and Magnus Effect would stop as soon as the gear moved outward causing severe drag. The trajectory would then be altered and the static stability factor in temporary chaos as the bullet begins to yaw and skid as it starts its turn. Once the backing and gear fell at the prescribed time due to the forces on it, the bullet would wobble and the oscillations slow and the new trajectory would then become stable as the bullets center of gravitys direction, direction of the cone and the trajectory all become the same once again. The bullet would slow and lose approximately 20% of its velocity due to the turn, induced drag of the skid as more of the bullet would pushing on the relative wind, however this fact will also allow the trajectory to re-stabilize. The parasite drag would also slow the bullet from the gear protruding in flight for that second, but once discharged after the turn, it would mimic the characteristics of a two-stage rocket, and it would be free from the extra weight and drag. The aerodynamics of the turn on the bullet itself might be more akin to that of a small SAM missile. The holes in the front of the bullet will either come thru the front perhaps around the cavity surrounding the hollow tip punch in the center. This idea has great applications for the A-10 for the nose gun where those bullets, which miss the first targets of a convoy end up turning into the additional targets in the line of the convoy. So the pilot might favor a parallel approach slightly off center and the bullets would act like a Major League curve ball on every forth round or so? If vehicles broke ranks and tried to flea or enemy soldiers on foot attempted to run, they could not escape as the bullets would be moving in those directions also. If every forth bullet turned right and every eighth bullet turned left, you might find your runs had higher first pass kill rates. Such a technique will also work good for Apache Attack Helicopters, the fewer passes you have to make the better. In air-to-air combat those seemingly stray bullets would help get the evasive fighter jet. If you are a special forces team entering an urban area for combat and your aerial vision from a loitering UAV, close air support or downloaded Satellite imagery shows bad guy threats around the next corner. Then a calibration devices on the barrel of a machine gun could be set to lay fire around the corner where enemy combatants have staged themselves for an ambush or just to clear the street from combatants before you round the corner. |
