BOOM! Headshot!

Essential linkage: It's official - the iPhone is now ubiquitous, thanks to a US military contractor's sniper rifle add-on.

There’s nothing that divides online shooter fans quite like the issue of sniping. Play Counter Strike for even a few minutes, and you’ll hear someone abusing a bunny-hopping-AWP-whore – usually right after a brutal headshot ragdolls them halfway across de_dust2.

But, in real life, we can all agree that sniping is pretty cool. Well, it used to be, now... we’re not so sure.

Yeah, that’s an iPhone in the picture. It’s attached to the US Army’s new sniper rifle of choice, the M110. The new rifle is set to slowly start replacing the mainstay M24 (a bolt action model), and firearms accessory manufacturer Knights Armaments would like to see its iPhone mounting system – with installed ballistic trajectory software – follow the rifle into service.

Because, apparently, there’s now officially no field of human endeavour that can’t be made better/worse by adding an iPhone.

Oh, and the software – called Bullet Flight – can be downloaded for your own sniping pleasure from the App Store for a mere $US11.99.

More details here.

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15 Comments

ArcaneMagik Jan 21, 2009 3:23 PM	Wouldn't the backlighting of the Iphone represent a problem for snipers in the field? Also the addictive nature of some of the games and facebook must be noted.
thesorehead Jan 21, 2009 3:47 PM	It's pretty dang cool if you ask me. With the GPS and military maps you can really have a good idea of what you're doing and with the right relay setup you could even use the camera to send geotagged photos. Heaps of potential.
n00bz0r Jan 21, 2009 4:21 PM	Yeah... as usual at0mic writers. You're living in a fantasy world. Real guns are hard to shoot without real physical skill. Wind and all that shit. I can shoot the fleas off a dogs back from 600 yards. (with a Lee Enfield SMLE Mk III)
Hawkeye Jan 21, 2009 4:56 PM	Uh... what?! - DH
n00bz0r Jan 21, 2009 5:31 PM	Whatever lol. I'm drunk and stupid. I just have a problem with peeps re rating things since mansill. Sorry. My real point i was getting to is that no software can ever equate to the physical thing, even if it is unequivocally cool.
ArcaneMagik Jan 21, 2009 5:35 PM	... Yes it can. Gut instinct has nothing on Maths. Unless we evolve maths co processors in our gut.
maxamatosis Jan 21, 2009 5:46 PM	Computer aided aiming seems perfectly sensible to me but the choice of the iPhone I find incredibly questionable. I'd certainly rather a rugged purpose-designed device than a flimsy mobile phone.
ArcaneMagik Jan 21, 2009 6:24 PM	The advantage of the iPhone is the sniper can download all his favourite Bryan Adams songs to head shot people to.
ahsoka Jan 21, 2009 6:35 PM	I'm not quite sure how you'd define sniping as "cool" - it's killing. It's cool in TV and movies, especially when it's such a damn good shot that you just can't stop thinking about it (so basically anything fired by Agent Ian Edgerton in NUMB3RS), but you have to remember that that's romanticised killing - in real life it's not so cool. If you were to ask a pro-army/AFP/spec-ops/etc. sniper if they liked the fact that they killed people, they'd probably say no...
SceptreCore Jan 21, 2009 7:10 PM	Microsoft will go to town on this, I bet they bring out an add making Apple out to be arms dealing, slave trading bunch of baby eaters. I would!
nesquick Jan 21, 2009 8:07 PM	I saw this on a show that previews new military hardware and it increased the effective range of the gun they were using to something around the 3000M mark. ie: they had to send a quad bike out to see how acurate the guy was with the new software and he was pretty dam close to the bullseye. Still pretty amazing that it can factor in wind, gravity and at that range movement of the earth also has to be factored in.
Takoma Jan 22, 2009 12:11 AM	I sincerely doubt the US military bean-counters will choose an iPhone, both expensive and vulnerable to adverse environments, over a lowest-bidder MilSpec purpose-built device. Who's this guy trying to fool? Oh that's right, the investors, who'll drop some money on him and act all surprised when he skips off to Zanzibar. (To meet the Zanzibarbarians!)
Elfarch Jan 22, 2009 1:22 AM	Good god. What a totally rediculous idea. Just another tech toy to get in the way and fail in the field. Use skill lads, not tech. Unless of course it displays on a cybernetic eye HUD. :{p
Jeruselem Jan 22, 2009 2:30 PM	I assume the iPhone vibrate mode would be disabled!
jcakurs Feb 6, 2009 10:37 PM	LOL. Just...lol.

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