Self-Guiding Bullets Are Now Real and Oh God, We’re Fucked

Have you ever been sitting around and thought, “You know what? Guns aren’t good enough at killing people. Like they kill literally ALL the people, but they aren’t as easy as I’d like. I have to do all the fucking aiming work. What if I could just not aim and like just hold up the gun and shoot and it would still kill someone?”

Well, if you’ve had that precise idea, you are in luck. Because DARPA, the U.S. government’s advanced research arm, has invented self-guiding/correcting bullets.

The bullets are called ‘EXACTO,’ short for Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance, and are here to take the human error out of human-on-human murder. Here’s what DARPA had to say.

The Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) system seeks to improve sniper effectiveness and enhance troop safety by allowing greater shooter standoff range and reduction in target engagement timelines. The objective of the EXACTO program is to revolutionize rifle accuracy and range by developing the first ever guided small-caliber bullet. The EXACTO 50- caliber round and optical sighting technology expects to greatly extend the day and nighttime range over current state-of-the-art sniper systems. The system combines a maneuverable bullet and a real-time guidance system to track and deliver the projectile to the target, allowing the bullet to change path during flight to compensate for any unexpected factors that may drive it off course.

Good, good. Smart bullets. Because when the machines take over, we wouldn’t want them to not be able to redirect the shots we fire at them right back at us.

Sayonara, humanity. Oh, here’s a video if you want to see it in action.

[Via io9.com]