A well-trained sniper is a very expensive fighter, but the cost of his training is repaid many times over if his capabilities are used wisely. Since everything has always revolved around money, it is not surprising that training costs are trying to be reduced to a minimum, and ideally to make it possible to use any soldier as a sniper. Half a century ago, this seemed impossible, since you cannot simply take and improve a person's skills without spending neither time nor money, the only option was to improve the weapon, but here you cannot jump too far, since the sniper-rifle combination is determined by its effectiveness by the weakest parameter. So, the most beautiful and accurate weapon in the hands of an unprepared person will not be able to show good results, just as the skills of a good sniper will be shackled by the low quality of weapons and ammunition.
Basically, you don't need a lot of intelligence to just shoot, but in order to shoot and hit at extreme distances, and even with high accuracy, you need to know much more than where the trigger is. Everything is fully taken into account, from the range to the target to the humidity of the air, and all this must either be calculated or replaced with a very large experience. With the development of electronics, the task of hitting the enemy at long distances was simplified, it got to the point that the sight itself made all the necessary adjustments, and all that remained was to catch the enemy in the sight and pull the trigger. However, this did not give everyone the opportunity to become at least an accurate shooter, since the enemy very rarely stands still, and most often moves quickly enough. Unfortunately, the bullet also has its own speed and the hit on the target does not occur at the moment the trigger is pulled, but somewhat later, in other words, in order to hit a moving target, it is necessary to make a correction for the speed of its movement, and this is not the most important task. simple.
This was the case until recently, now, according to TrackingPoint, absolutely anyone can become a sniper. To be honest, I personally cannot believe that anyone who has two hands and at least one "working" eye will be able to accurately hit the enemy at long distances, but some moments make you think that if not now, then in the near future it will become reality. At CES 2013, the company presented its computerized sniper complex, capable of partially independently firing at the enemy, but still in the presence of a person.
The main essence of the company's development lies not so much in the weapon as in the sighting device, which independently takes into account all the amendments that the shooter had to make before, including the speed of the target, and can significantly facilitate the use of weapons. In order to understand the main essence of the development, it is necessary to disassemble how the process of aiming and firing will take place now. First, the shooter aims the weapon at the target and marks the selected target. The sight remembers the shooter's choice and waits for a further command. After the shooter is ready to fire, he puts the weapon on alert, but the shot will not occur until the shooter again aims the weapon at the target. The shot occurs automatically as soon as the weapon is aimed at the target. It is noteworthy that no corrections need to be made, it is enough just to combine the target with the crosshair of the sight, as in most computer games, the sight makes all the corrections on its own.
Here is such a technical progress in the field of firearms. At the moment, the company is going to release three versions of such weapons: one for the.338 LM cartridge and two for the.300 WM cartridge. They promise the possibility of remote control for the iPhone and iPad, it's not clear why, because you can't turn a weapon remotely, and so on and so forth.
In general, it seems to me that such a device is good for everyone, except that it shoots independently, whatever one may say, but this opportunity still had to be left for a person, and not for a computer. After all, a person is not a machine tool and is far from always ready to fire. But if this weapon were supplemented with a machine tool that has the ability to turn the rifle in the desired direction, then remote control from a smartphone or tablet and an automatic shot when aiming at a target would be in demand. And most importantly, then really anyone could quite confidently hit the enemy, because for this from the skills he would only need the ability to poke a finger into the touch screen. Although even now a minimum will be required from the shooter, namely to get drunk so that his hands do not shake, although this electronics may well compensate.
Summing up, it should be noted that any innovation is useful, even if it shows that it is impossible to do it the way it was done. In this case, I think, such a system is more relevant for weapons that do not have direct contact with the shooter. However, it is not known how the development of weapons will go in the future, perhaps it is true that soon a person will be needed only as a machine tool for weapons, and all the rest of the weapon will be done by itself, as described in many literary works. After all, a lot of what science fiction writers have described is already quite real, and sometimes the thought comes to mind that designers derive their ideas from science fiction.
And finally, about the financial issue. All this happiness is worth about 17 thousand dollars, I think that depending on what kind of ammunition is used, the price will not run up much. On the characteristics of the weapon itself, except for information about the ammunition used, there is no data yet. It's hard to say whether it's worth it, but I think that simply by producing "smart" sights that could be installed on most rifles, the company would have had much more, even though this market is already occupied by others, but TrackingPoint specialists know better …
