Tom Clancy Drool Fest

The Army is playing a new shell game:

Two types of smart [81mm mortar] shells are planned. One would be GPS guided, with the front line troops using a laser range finder to get the location of the target, transmit that data right back to the mortar crew, who would have the shell in a cradle that automatically transferred the coordinates to the shells memory. The shell would be dropped down the tube and, assuming the mortar crew aimed the mortar tube in the right direction, the shell would home in on the coordinates, landing with 30 feet of the target. This is more than three times as accurate as current mortar shells. In fact, current shells get a lot less accurate the longer the range. Smart mortar shells would have the same accuracy at any range. Another smart mortar shell would seek out transmitters of a certain frequency, which would destroy enemy radios, and cell phone transmitters. Another smart round already in development is the “Recon Round”, that carries a camera and parachute in the shell. While the shell is slowly coming to ground with it’s parachute deployed, it sends pictures of what is below to a nearby company commander via a laptop equipped with a signal receiver card.

And they want to get the things deployed in two years or less. Remarkable.