WASHINGTON (TIP):
The US army has confirmed that is testing new high-tech rifles that incorporate “computer vision and object tracking technologies” that allow “any soldier (to become) an extraordinary marksman”. A spokeswoman confirmed reports that specialist equipmenttesters had purchased six ‘scope and trigger’ kits built by Texas-based start-up TrackingPoint and would be testing them on XM 2010 sniper rifles. TrackingPoint’s technology consists of a scope with an on-board computer and a linked trigger.

A shooter looking through the scope first ‘tags’ a target before the computer calculates the best place to shoot by measuring 16 different variables, including range, wind, temperature and humidity. A marker on the scope then indicates the correct “firing solution” and locks the trigger until the shooter has correctly aligned the sights with the target.

Tracking Point stress that there is no automatic firing and that “the only way a round can be launched is through human pull force (on the trigger).” Lt Col Shawn Lucas from the army’s Program Executive Office said that the technology will help train soldiers for “a relatively small investment” and that it offers “significant increase in probability of hit and overall effectiveness by making an investment in advanced fire control.”