Bullet flight time conventions

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

So a homing bullet might work because it would be able to make some corrections. Maybe. I have little confidence that small caliber rounds would be able to make much of a course change given they have no thrust to work with and often little altitude to trade. The vision of them doggedly pursuing their mark through an urban apocalypse dodging buildings and the odd burnt out car is not one that I cater to. Whether they would actually help with AA fire or air-to-air combat is something to be considered.

I think you're looking at homing weapons wrong here. A homing bullet doesn't follow its target. (Neither do missiles usually if not fired from a chase position.) It can't do that. But it also doesn't need to. It's watching the target the whole way in - as soon as they start moving, it starts maneuvering to match. It's hard to look this up, but a human probably can't generate more than 1g acceleration over any appreciable period. If the bullet's control surfaces (whatever they are) can produce a mere 1g lateral acceleration, it should have no problem at all tracking somebody who tries to run or dive out of the way of the shot.

Of course, if the target runs or dives behind total cover before the projectile arrives, the smart bullet has no prospects of a hit. It can hit the cover, or it can fly past the cover, but it can't possibly stop and turn a corner. Larger payload rounds might detonate a blast/fragmentation or directional EFP warhead to try to tag someone they can't hit directly in that circumstance, but impact rounds are just out of luck.