I remember seeing a video-based sniper detector on TV a couple years ago. The “Boomerang” system detects shock waves. From New high-tech tools help soldiers pinpoint gunfire in Iraq:
The sniper detector, named ‘Boomerang’ and developed by BBN Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is all about diluting the element of surprise in urban ambushes.Sensors atop an aluminum pole on the back of a Humvee pick up supersonic shock waves to give an approximate location of gunfire, and sound waves measured from the muzzle blast narrow it some more.
A cigarette box-sized display on the dashboard or windshield then shows the findings. “Incoming, 5 o’clock,” says a speaker inside the box.
Assailants in urban Iraq are often inexperienced, missing on the first shot, said Karen Wood, who supervised development of “Boomerang” in just two months. They also tend to be armed with AK-47s rather than more accurate rifles, giving soldiers time to return fire or get out of harm’s way.
DARPA tested the Boomerang on a snowy December day at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. The Marines and Army in Iraq (DARPA won’t say which units) then volunteered to take 50, becoming the first to try them in battle.
DARPA’s goal is to lower the cost of a sniper detector from $10,000 to $3,000 and to link them in a network that lets soldiers throughout Baghdad know sniper whereabouts. And while hostile gunfire doesn’t pose near the lethal threat to U.S. troops as craftily rigged roadside bombs, every little bit helps.
“Is a 20 percent solution better than nothing?” Wood said. “If it saves lives, a partial solution is better than nothing.”