The US Army is evaluating a new version of technology recently demonstrated by Smart Shooter Ltd., an Israeli company, working with Sig Sauer, for its so-called next generation squad weapon, according to Military.com.
The new shooter technology, presented by Sig Sauer at SHOT Show 2020, is known as the SMASH Fire Control System, and is designed to improve the shooting accuracy of stationary or moving targets, day or night.
"We are currently competing in the Next Generation Squad Weapon Fire Control competition ... with a similar technology," said Devin Schweiss of Smart Shooter, cited by the website. "We are still adapting it, but it's going to be a pretty good solution."
Schweiss said that SMASH system "allows you to acquire, lock on and engage targets" using the weapon’s optical system and a special pistol grip that only allows the weapon to shoot “when it's a guaranteed hit”.
According to the branding promotion, when using SMASH, all a shooter needs to do is to look through the SMASH optic to place the crosshairs on the target and then press a lock button mounted on the weapon's handguard to mark the target with a small rectangle before pulling the trigger.
The information collected by the SMASH optic is sent to a computer and the weapon only fires if a hit is guaranteed. If the target moves suddenly, the shooter must replace the crosshairs which, when set correctly, then causes the weapon to shoot automatically.
"While I am holding down this button, I am acquiring targets through image processing. ... Once I release it, it will lock the target and give me and aimpoint. Then I just hold down the trigger, align my crosshairs to where the system tells me to, and the system will fire whenever it's a hit,” Schweiss said.
According to Schweiss, the system needs up to five minutes to process target information. A shooter can fire manually, however, without using the SMASH lock button, in the event a quicker shot on a closer target is required.