Army Puts Out Call for 'Magic' Hovering Bullet

...bullet would be non-lethal
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 29, 2012 7:29 AM CDT
Army Puts Out Call for 'Magic' Hovering Bullet
The actual "magic bullet" will probably look absolutely nothing like this.   (Shutterstock)

The Pentagon certainly has imagination when it comes to making up dream weapons. It's put out a new list of weapons small businesses should try to design for it, and one of them is a "Nonlethal Warhead of Miniature Organic Precision Munitions," or what Wired describes as, "one part bazooka round; one part suicidal drone; one part stun round." Essentially, the Army wants a bullet that can acquire a target, close in on it in less than 20 seconds, and then somehow incapacitate it without killing it.

If it can't find its target, this hypothetical wonder-bullet will hover until it can. The whole thing is based on a nascent project called the "Lethal Miniature Aerial Munitions System," which the Pentagon itself has likened to a "magic bullet." The new project calls for a non-lethal "warhead" for that system—the Pentagon suggests incapacitating targets with something "mechanical, such as rubber balls; acoustic; chemical; electrical; or dazzle." (More US Army stories.)

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