Word: darpa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...highly-classified EXACTO program began a year ago, when the U.S. military's band of scientists and engineers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - which played a key role in the creation of both the Internet and GPS - let the military-industrial complex know it was seeking a supergun. "The ability to more accurately prosecute targets at significantly longer range would provide a dramatic new capability to the U.S. military," DARPA'S solicitation for bids said. "The use of an actively controlled bullet will make it possible to counter environmental effects such as crosswinds and air density...
...November, DARPA awarded Lockheed Martin $12.3 million and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging $9.5 million to begin work on the new weapon. If various technical hurdles are cleared, it could be available sometime around...
...DARPA says the Pentagon needs the vastly improved rifle because the use of snipers has ballooned from 250 to 800 annually. The sharpshooters require extensive and expensive training - all of which could be reduced with a better gun. Snipers "are unable to take a shot the vast majority of the time" because of wind or other weather factors, and a lack of confidence in their ability to hit the target or flee if detected. Those shortcomings could be greatly reduced by the new longer-range rifle. How much longer range? "Specific system performance objectives (e.g., range, accuracy and target speed...
...Deron Lovaas, a Policy Director at the U.S.-based environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council, says military researchers have a history of spawning transformative technologies that trickle into society, including DARPAnet, the communication system of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that eventually evolved into the Internet. "What's exciting here is potential spin-off effects," he says. "The military can invest so much more than the private sector can. They can invest billions into substitute fuels. And they can take bigger risks...
...message has been passed on to industry and research institutions. A recent DOD acquisition directive requires the military to consider the "fuel burdens" of new technology, while a special office inside the DOD monitors alternative energy efforts at U.S.-based universities and institutions with an eye to awarding funding. DARPA was recently given $100 million for a research project into alternative fuels. (See TIME's special report on the environment...