Snipers Get Laser-Adjusted Sights for Lethal Shots

Modern-day snipers no longer need to worry that crawling through the underbrush or clambering up to a rooftop vantage point could have knocked the rifle barrel around and thrown off the precise alignment that ensures the

"For military snipers, missing the target could allow high-profile terrorists to escape," said Slobodan Rajic, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "For police marksmen, missing the kidnapper could endanger the lives of hostages and then pose subsequent danger to

Such tiny sighting changes can make all the difference when shooting over long distances. Modern rifles can effectively hit targets up to two miles away, which means that even the smallest disruptions between sight and barrel alignment can throw off shots by wide margins.

Rajic used optical fibers to split a laser beam and direct the split beam along both the top and side of the rifle barrel. That gives both vertical and horizontal measurements of the barrel's deflection compared to the sight, and allows the system to make the appropriate corrections.

But Rajic and his Oak Ridge National Laboratory colleagues won't stop there. They have begun working on a laser-based bullet tracking system that gives snipers information about the bullet's flight path. Their work shows that