Target/Impact-Point Offset Fast Feedback (TIPOFF)

The goal for a sniper is one shot, one kill. However, there are circumstances where a second shot is necessary. The goal is to take the second shot as quickly as possible, minimizing the changes in windage or target position. Accuracy of the second shot can be significantly improved if the miss distance of the first shot is known with high accuracy. Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI) and AAI/Textron Systems (AAI) will develop TIPOFF, a spotter assist system that will track the sniper bullet in flight, determine where it crosses the target plane and convert this information to miss distance. Whether trade studies indicate that disturbed air or infrared tracking is optimal, this is the ideal team to study, develop and implement the solution. The disturbed air solution amounts to replacing a highly-trained human with a camera and complex algorithms and the IR tracking solution amounts to undersampling the track of a fast moving bullet and extracting a high-resolution trajectory from low SNR data and then projecting it to the target plane. Regardless of the technique, quick rapid calculation of the missed distance will allow a rapid second shot with a very high probability of hit.