The Hypersonic Age Is About To Make Snipers Super Soldiers

Mark Episkopos

Security,

Bullets that can travel at 6,560 feet per second.

Key point: Cost considerations will likely keep this from becoming widespread.

Russian weapons manufacturer Lobaev Arms has announced that they can produce small arms ammunition with a muzzle velocity of 2,000 m/s.

According to Lobaev co-cofounder Vladislav Lobaev, “we are intensely researching this topic. I think that, with a certain degree of government funding, we are in a position to produce sniper rounds traveling at 2000 meters per second within a year. That is already hypersonic speed.”

Snipers have to account for a host of external ballistics factors including wind values, elevation, and even air density to maximize accuracy. These estimations have to be made under frequently narrow time constraints and vary in complexity depending on target distance and the severity of environmental factors.

But hypersonic rounds translate into potential performance gains on several fronts. Everything else being equal, their drastically faster travel speeds would make it easier for snipers to line up their shots by minimizing the impact of external factors. Hypersonic rounds would also give the target less time to move out of the bullet’s travel path. Lobaev told a Russian defense publication that speeds over Mach 5 would “allow shots at up to 1,000 meters without any adjustments.”