New 'One-Shot' Rifle Sight Could Make Snipers Deadlier Than Ever

Snipers are already one of the more deadly anti-personnel assets the U.S. military has, but somehow, they're going to get deadlier.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency just awarded a $6 million contract to Cubic Corporation to develop the last phase of it's XG (Next Generation) sniper sight. Through use of complex sensor systems, the sight automatically adjusts for windage, elevation, even direction and speed of the target.

From DARPA:
The system developed will measure all relevant physical phenomena that influence the ballistic trajectory and rapidly calculate and display the offset aim point and confidence metric in the shooter’s rifle scope. The system will provide the ability to see the aim point on the target in either day or night to enable rapid target identification, weapon alignment, measurement of range to target and the crosswind profile.

Basically, the sight removes the necessity for snipers to use spotters — a spotter is the guy with binoculars lying next to the shooter. responsible for calling adjustments to wind, elevation, etc., and is generally the higher ranking of the two.

This doesn't mean snipers won't travel in teams of two, but it does act as what the military calls a "force multiplier," meaning now each team member can take shots.

The goal of this development phase of the system is to make the sight compact enough to fit on the top of a rifle, or on a spotter's scope.

"The No. 1 error among our snipers is not being able to accurately measure downrange cross wind profile between the shooter and the target," Steve Sampson, vice president of Advanced Programs for Cubic Defense Applications, said to Laser Focus World. "The technology that Cubic is helping to develop under this program aims to do that within seconds. Using a unique two-way measurement system operated from existing sniper rifles or spotter scopes on current and future weapons, One Shot XG is designed to provide greatly improved first-round accuracy."