Under fire

Soldiers pinned down by sniper fire might one day be able to pinpoint where
their attacker is hiding, using a new detector invented by BBN Technologies in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. The “crack” as the shot leaves the muzzle can be
masked by background noise, so the detector’s helmet-mounted microphones instead
track the bullet’s supersonic shock wave. If two or more soldiers wearing the
equipment are either side of the shot, “the system gives a very good estimate of
the bullet’s trajectory”, says Gregory Duckworth of BBN Technologies. “From
there, it works back to where the sniper is likely to be,” he…