10 ms·

> “The bullet is coming down so slowly, and at about a 48-degree angle, it was just penetrating into the ground without kicking up dust.” I have no shooting ex

> “The bullet is coming down so slowly, and at about a 48-degree angle, it was just penetrating into the ground without kicking up dust.” I have no shooting experience, but the arc they have to put into the shot to travel 4.4 miles (~7 km), seems so counter-intuitive to what I associate with shooting. Really impressive work by this team, to have all this calculated out so that they can hit it within 69 shots. I'm really curious what the success rate of their shot is. From the video, it sounds like the unsuccessful shots were still relatively close by, enough that they seemed confident in being able to still guide it in, so around 1/100 sounds about right, as a crude prior estimate.

mike_d 4y ago
Over water (completely flat) you have a maximum sight-line of 3.1 miles due to the curve of the earth. Not only is this shot unlikely to be repeatable, but it is downright impossible without a forward observer. The current record for the farthest sniper shot resulting in a kill is just under 2.2 miles for reference. With the power requirements to get a bullet out that far, all of the longest sniper shots are using effectively anti-material rifles (designed to take out a car engine, not a person).
- kubami 4y ago
  Both of which they acknowledge: “It’s a one-in-a-million shot. They said it’s not statistically repeatable,” he said. “The amount of precision and time that went into that shot was simply amazing.