US Army patents bullet that self-destructs to protect civilians

Air Force guy talking here so not an ammo expert, but I think the goal of this technology is to destruct once the target area is reached. Seems like it's a location based termination. I've seen a lot technology pop up in the last few years with "smart rifles" and how pin point accurate they can be with sending bullets exactly where they need to be on moving targets while calculating wind speed, altitude, and speed of the moving target. Unreal how far we've come in the last 10 years. Will be interesting to see how much of this technology the DoD will pay for.

Capt Brandon Charters - I'm curious as to how this will be made viable on the battlefield. I read the article twice in an effort to understand "a pyrotechnic material is ignited when a rifle is fired, which in turn ignites a reactive material designed to transform a .50 caliber bullet into an "aerodynamically unstable object." In effect, the burn time dictates how far the bullet will travel before it loses its aerodynamic shape and the velocity falls." Which didn't answer my questions about how the burn time will be predetermined per target. I found this in another article ""According to the inventor, the distance at which the round self-destructs can be adjusted based on the choice of reactive material used in the pyrotechnics." which helps to answer my question. The other article also states that the use of this type of ammo is specifically targeted to urban environments.