Smart Assault Rifles Now Available

You can pretty well place the word “smart” in front of just about any device these days. There are countless Smartphones, Smartbeds, Smartglasses, SmartTV’s, and the list could go on and on. However, there’s one device you might not have considered placing “smart” in front of until now: the rifle. Yes, folks, that is correct – a company known as Tracking Point has developed and created a smart assault rifle. These particular rifles are reported to easily find and hit targets as far away as 500 yards. In case you need a visual for that number it would be roughly the length of 5 football fields. Talk about a long shot; I don’t know, but that sounds like sniper distance to me.

If you’re anything like me, your reaction to reading this might have been something akin to “how in the world does a smart rifle work?” To be honest, the technology sounds a whole lot fascinating and an equal amount frightening.

Taking Aim At The Smart Assault Rifle

Tracking Point is no stranger to technologically advanced firearms. They recently designed and released another smart rifle that costs upwards of $27,000. This smart assault rifle, called the 500 Series AR, is slightly cheaper and runs around $10,000.

So, what’s so special about it? Well, for one thing it has Wi-Fi, a digital scope with an LCD screen, and it also boasts a laser range finder. Perhaps the best and even most controversial feature of the assault rifle is its Networked Tracking Scope that locks on to any moving target. With this feature, all a person has to do is pull the trigger and the rifle will then decide when it should fire the bullet based upon any movement, wind speed, etc.

In a statement about the rifle, Tracking Point had this to say:

“With stabilized target selection, target tracking and guided firing the 500 Series semi-automatic AR products enable anyone to be an expert marksman out to the 500 yard effective range of the firearm, even from difficult firing positions, such as kneeling, standing or even lying beneath an automobile…”

I don’t know about you, but that sounds crazy to me. And is it just me, or does that take all of the skill away from hunting?

What do you think?

[Image via dvice]

SOURCE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57617027-76/long-range-smart-rifles-now-come-in-semi-automatic/