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Even more innovation is needed for the manufacturing process. "What we want to do is make it cheap enough to make it cost effective for the military to use in a machine gun," he said. "It's not going to be millions of dollars, but it's not going to be a buck a piece either." The technology has captured the interest of weapons experts, both for the successful miniaturization of guidance systems that are usually reserved for missiles and for the potential benefits of precision. "All of a sudden now you've got a way to eliminate the collateral damage issues. From that perspective, this starts to get interesting," said Adam Firestone, an Army veteran, instructor and a weapons system engineer. Firestone and other experts said the battlefield of the future will surely include more capabilities for guiding bullets and bombs, but what will make the difference will be communication improvements and intelligence sharing systems that take advantage of the high-tech weapons while linking each soldier together. Defense department researchers and contractors are already developing flying nano-bots that can stream live video, contact lenses that would allow soldiers to focus simultaneously on virtual digital images and their surroundings, and smartphone apps that help with tactical operations. "Where we're going is to a world where the individual soldier, Marine, sailor or airman lives in a bath of knowledge. The world would be surreal in the original sense of super real. When you look at something, you see what you need to see when you need to see it," Firestone said. "They will have the ability to make decisions more accurately and that will have a significant impact."
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated
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