Guns are mere delivery systems for projectiles, which are truly the weapons in all firearms from pistols to heavy artillery and everything in between, and these weapons, which MT is examining in this article, are becoming smarter all the time. Once, it was only heavy artillery shells that could accommodate enough processing power and actuation gubbins to achieve precisely timed detonation and precision guidance technology, but now all that has changed. The latest rounds entering service and under development embody a wide variety of advanced technologies to ensure they hit manoeuvring targets, defeat adversaries behind cover or in defilade or defeat incoming threats, such as rockets or mortar bombs not that much bigger than themselves. While smarts are being applied to rounds of many calibres up to 155mm, the not so humble .50 calibre (cal) is the focus of some of the most intriguing attempts to pack a lot of capability into a little space.
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