A carbine that can call in an airstrike. A computer-aided scope on a machine gun that can turn just about anyone into a marksman. Firearms that measure and record every movement, from the angle of the barrel to the precise moment of each shot fired.
The application of information technology to firearms has long been resisted in the United States by gun owners and law-enforcement officials who worry they could be hacked, fail at the wrong moment or invite government control.
But with the U.S. Army soliciting bids for high-tech battlefield solutions to create the soldier's rifle of the future, those concerns may quickly become irrelevant.