Some time ago, possibly as long ago as during the Gulf War period, I
read a (I believe, newspaper) article that the Israelis had attempted
to develop a "smart bullet," (a.k.a. a "Barrel Launched Adaptive
Munition" or "BLAM") a project that was abruptly cancelled when two
people were accidently killed during a field test.

I'm looking for specific information about that incident, preferably
online, and preferably at no cost (that is, I'd prefer to not pay for
access to an archived article unless I can first determine how
detailed its information will be).  If you think you've got a lead
that differs from those parameters, please ask through a request for
clarification.

I've already done a Google search and Kartoo meta-search using various
combinations of the obvious search terms such as "smart bullet",
Israel, Israeli, and Mossad, without luck. Perhaps my fellow
researchers can show me a new way to skin the cat without buttering it
first. :-)

regards,

rico

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Request for Question Clarification by thx1138-ga on 07 Oct 2002 10:30 PDT

Hi rico-ga,

I have found information on the BLAMs and on 2 Israelis that were
killed in Israel during the Gulf war, however the two stories are not
connected!
I know your search strategies are excellent and mine are not too rusty
either :) but like you I could not find anything that suggested that
"two people were accidently killed during a field test" (of BLAMs)

"During the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel,
all with conventional warheads. Two Israelis were killed by the Scuds;
several dozen others died from heart attacks during the Iraqi
assault."
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/transcripts/2002/aug/020826.gradstein.html

At the bottom of this website:  
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hugg/bullets.htm (which is part
fiction)  I noticed it said "This material was derived from an article
in New Scientist magazine about current research by the U.S.
Department of Defence."
so, I registered for a free weeks subscription to New Scientist (which
you need to search the archives) and came up with this:

(Note: that this project had not even got to the test-firing stage and
the article was published on 12 April '97 and that "although he
predicts they are 15 years away.")


"Technology : You can run, but you can't hide... 
 
New Scientist vol 154 issue 2077 - 12 April 97, page 20 
 
  
SMART bullets that follow the twists and turns of their victims after
they have left the barrel of a gun are being developed in a US Air
Force project. According to recently declassified research by the
Department of Defense, the new bullets will allow snipers to hit
targets several kilometres away. "This technology could change the
nature of war," says Ron Barrett, an aerospace engineer at Auburn
University in Alabama who is testing prototypes of these Barrel
Launched Adaptive Munitions.

BLAMs steer by twitching their noses. Each bullet has a nose that can
swivel, changing the angle it makes with the airflow. "At supersonic
speed, very small angles generate huge amounts of lift," explains
Barrett. Angling the nose towards the target causes the bullet to veer
in that direction.

The mechanism is simple. The nose is connected to the body by a
ball-and-socket joint, and held in place by a number of piezoceramic
rods, or tendons, which change length when a voltage is applied to
them. Increasing the length of a rod on one side of the bullet while
shortening its opposite number changes the angle of the nose (see
Diagram). The nose can move by up to 0.1° in any direction.

   
  A new type of bullet that steers itself 
 
 
These simple actuators are ideal for bullets because they can
withstand the huge forces generated during firing, says Barrett. He
has already demonstrated that the prototype can survive accelerations
of more than 17 000 times gravity.

They are also able to lengthen and contract hundreds of times a
second. This is important because spinning bullets travel at several
times the speed of sound, so any control mechanism must be able to
react quickly to compensate. In wind tunnel tests, Barrett has proved
that the piezoceramic rods can produce good control of a round
travelling at more than Mach 3.

So far the work has focused on the large-calibre bullets with
diameters of 20 millimetres or more that are used in aircraft cannon.
These bullets are notoriously inaccurate because they are blown off
course by the wind and follow parabolic trajectories, dropping
significantly over distances of a kilometre or so. "The way pilots
guarantee a hit is by filling the sky with lead," says Barrett.
Because BLAMs generate lift, they can overcome the effects of wind and
gravity, giving them at least twice the range of conventional bullets.
"And with BLAM, pilots would need only one bullet to get a hit," says
Barrett.

In addition to the steering mechanism, each bullet would also need a
guidance system that tracks the target and controls the actuators.
Barrett says this is the easy part of the problem. "Accurate guidance
systems have been around for 30 years," he explains.

The idea is to "paint" the target with a laser beam and equip the
bullets with a sensor that homes in on this signal, just like smart
bombs. Each bullet would have a sensor behind a quartz window that
picks up the signal and controls the bullet. Barrett says that
suitable sensors already exist that can withstand the stresses of
being fired from a gun and can be made more or less the size of a
microchip.

But the bullets will not be cheap. Aircraft bullets cost more than $30
each. Barrett says the piezoceramic materials would add $10 to this
while the microelectronics would cost another $100. But he argues that
the increased strike rate would lead to cost savings. "You'd only fire
one when otherwise you'd fire hundreds."

Another advantage of piezoceramic actuators is that they can easily be
made smaller. "You don't have to fiddle around with tiny mechanisms as
you would for conventional actuators," he says. This raises the
prospect of smart bullets for small arms.

Laser reflection is already a common method of sighting for hand-held
weapons. But a sharpshooter must still compensate for gravity and
wind, and this limits the range of even the most accurate guns to a
kilometre or so. With smart bullets, snipers could hit targets from
several kilometres away. The gun and the laser sight need not even be
in the same place.

But a lot of research and development is needed before the first
weapon fires a smart bullet. "The technology is not yet fully proven,"
says Fred Davis, who heads the flight vehicles branch at the US Air
Force's Wright Laboratory in Florida, which funded Barrett's work. But
Davis believes that smart bullets are a practical possibility,
although he predicts they are 15 years away. He says that his
laboratory has already developed scaled down, cheaper versions of the
smart bombs that were so successful during the Gulf War."

Is it possible that you might have 'merged' the two stories?

Best regards (and good luck in your search)
THX1138

---

Clarification of Question by rico-ga on 07 Oct 2002 10:51 PDT

I'm sure I didn't conflate the two stories, THX, but thanks for the
try. You're definitely no search slouch, but I've already been there
and done that with the link you provided. :-)

More grist for the mill: I can remember a) being astounded by the
report (which was only a one- or two-line digression in a much longer
story on another subject... possibly on the feasibility of
assassinating Sadaam Hussein. b) being extremely irritatated that
there wasn't more information and being unable to verify the report.

I suspect, if the report wasn't made up of whole cloth, that it was a
black operation shut down by the Israeli government after the deaths
came to light.

At one time, I would religiously paper-filed away an item like this,
but unfortunately time and tide have swept it away if I ever did.  If
I had to hazard a guess, I'd assume I would have read it in the Boston
Globe, but again, have had mo luck either finding the specific article
or any further information.

Interesting to see how this works from the other side of the fence. 

regards,

rico

---

Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 07 Oct 2002 14:07 PDT

Rico Dearest, 

I also remember an incident whereas Israeli special forces were killed
in what migth have been wet practice to assassinate Saddam. This was
known as "Tse'elim B" incident, but: "Barak has been cleared of blame
in a state inquiry of a 1992 army training accident that killed five
commandos and left six others injured.
...observing an exercise at the Tse'elim military base when a missile
prematurely fired, causing the fatalities". (Source:
http://www.jewishsf.com/bk990312/ijtabarak.htm).

Despite the differences, could that be what you're looking for?

---

Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 07 Oct 2002 14:09 PDT

Okay Rico - Bingo: 
"The London-based intelligence newsletter Foreign Report wrote at the
end of May [1997? 1996? see date at the end of that page] that Israel
has developed a top-secret "mini-cruise missile" for use in
assassinations. It was noted that the portable guided missile was
first spotted at the time of the 1992 accident at Tse’elim. During a
rehearsal of a planned assassination of Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein, five members of an IDF elite unit were killed and almost the
whole military leadership, observing the exercise, was place in danger
of being wiped out. Since then, the development of the mini-missile
has continued and it has been used during the last two years on
certain occasions as in southern Lebanon."
(http://205.178.162.51/israel_in_focus/archived/980612/iif_news_summary.htm).

So what you may be looking for is that Foreign Report issue. I'll
search.

Greetings, 
pg-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 07 Oct 2002 14:19 PDT

It is Foreign Report from May 1998, but "Jane's" are not anyone's
suckers. I didn't find any free versions online.

---

Clarification of Question by rico-ga on 08 Oct 2002 04:39 PDT

Bingo, indeed, pg, you got it, and win the brass ring (or at least
$7.50 :-).

If you happen to find any more info, or can point me to where I can
buy a copy of the May `98 FR, cool.  If not, post what you gave me as
an answer. Ha! Mini-cruise missile, indeed.  I wonder how that got
transmogrified into a smart bullet. Time for me to find what else can
be found about the infamous "1992 accident at Tse’elim."

best regards,

rico

---

Clarification of Question by rico-ga on 13 Oct 2002 08:06 PDT

In case it wasn't clear, pg, I'm more than satisfied with the
information you provided through clarification. Re-post as an answer,
and I'll be happy to pay.  You've got to 11/6, of course.  Thanks
again!

rico