ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Take two Sandia National Laboratories engineers who are hunters, get them talking about the sport and it shouldn’t be surprising when the conversation leads to a patented design for a self-guided bullet that could help war fighters. New Mexico-based Sandia National Laboratories says its engineers have done just that. They invented a bullet that directs itself to a target like a tiny guided missile.

KRQE-TV reports that according to Sandia Labs engineers, the bullet twists and turns to guide itself toward a laser-directed point. Officials say it can make up to thirty corrections per second while in the air.

Sandia technical staff member Jim Jones says he thinks the .50-caliber bullets would work well with military machine guns, so soldiers could hit their mark faster and with precision.

Sandia’s design for the four-inch-long bullet includes an optical sensor in the nose to detect a laser beam on a target. The sensor sends information to guidance and control electronics that use an algorithm in an eight-bit central processing unit to command electromagnetic actuators. These actuators steer tiny fins that guide the bullet to the target.

Most bullets shot from rifles, which have grooves, or rifling, that cause them to spin so they fly straight, like a long football pass. To enable a bullet to turn in flight toward a target and to simplify the design, the spin had to go, Jones said.

The bullet flies straight due to its aerodynamically stable design, which consists of a center of gravity that sits forward in the projectile and tiny fins that enable it to fly without spin, just as a dart does, he said.

Researchers also filmed high-speed video of the bullet radically pitching as it exited the barrel. The bullet pitches less as it flies down range, a phenomenon known to long-range firearms experts as “going to sleep.” Because the bullet’s motions settle the longer it is in flight, accuracy improves at longer ranges, Jones said.

“Nobody had ever seen that, but we’ve got high-speed video photography that shows that it’s true,” he said.

The team needs a sponsor to manufacture the prototype on a commercial scale. Research and development grants have taken the project this far.  Potential customers for the bullet include the military, law enforcement and recreational shooters.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)