Bullet flight time conventions

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Time interval doesn't matter - if it has control surfaces and no propulsion it has a glide path - even if it is an F-4 (which was said to have the glide characteristics of a brick with the engines off)... No controls and no propulsion? It is a ballistic object trapped on a trajectory.

Re: shrinking area of opportunities - Exactly. The difference is that missiles have continuous propulsion (until the fuel runs out) and controls and bullets get one good wallop and then nothing so what ever controls they get in GURPS with a G&H system has to make do with the energy they have.

That is technically true, but once again, it's misleading.

Yes, the bullet has only so much energy to work with. But that's not a binding constraint, because it also only has so much distance to work with before overshooting the target. And it's not likely to have enough maneuver authority to run out of energy before it runs out of space.

The smart bullet isn't performing any sort of extensive maneuvers. It's just deflecting its ballistic trajectory enough to make it pass through the target rather than pass by the target.

(A bullet, smart or not, also could be said to have much the same glide characteristics as a brick. If you threw said brick at supersonic speeds.)

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Several posts have been about sniping but is that the best use of such technology? The intention is to raise the hit ratio of the user - one bullet, one kill. A novice may be able to do very well with such a system so that leverages the manpower and lets less skilled people do better. But you could run a sensor over a crowd or a base, pick targets in real-time and then fire a burst of active homing rounds. Do it from within the one second range to reduce some counter measures. Send an armed drone as the firing platform and remotely engage if the range is too close for the firer to escape and evade retribution. Fire from further out if there is a need to cover more wiidth. And thus begins wheels within wheels of strategy and doctrine.

Being able to spray a burst of rounds at a scatter of targets based on the take from a separate sensor is a pretty big demand for fire control. It requires the bullets have two kinds of guidance, and receive target-designation instructions from the launcher either before or after being fired. Plus the basic added hazard of having to acquire the target with onboard sensors on the fly. If you're firing into a target-rich environment that's a good way to wind up with rounds locking on to the wrong things.