Garmin Ltd. has announced the acquisition of Applied Ballistics, the Howard City, Michigan, firm renowned for its ballistic solvers and data-driven firing solutions crucial for competitive shooters, hunters, and long-range enthusiasts. While no financial terms of the deal were disclosed, this acquisition formalizes a partnership that has seen Applied Ballistics technology integrated into Garmin devices for nearly a decade.
Brad Trenkle, Garmin Co-Chief Operating Officer, stated that Applied Ballistics serves as "a natural complement to Garmin’s outdoor and tactical product portfolio." He highlighted that this acquisition brings the company’s software, proprietary projectile data, and comprehensive firing solutions under Garmin’s direct ownership.
Precision rifle competitors are already well acquainted with this integration. Garmin’s Foretrex line, equipped with Applied Ballistics solvers, has become a staple in Precision Rifle Series (PRS) and Extreme Long-Range (ELR) competitions. The collaboration began notably with the Foretrex 701 Ballistic Edition’s debut at the 2017 King of 2 Miles event. Since then, Applied Ballistics solvers have expanded across Garmin's product range, appearing in devices such as the Foretrex 901 Ballistic Edition, tactix 7 Pro Ballistics Edition, and Tactical Edition versions of the Instinct 3. The tactix 8, which launched in February 2025, further extends this integration alongside the AB Quantum app, designed to allow users to manage rifle profiles, targets, and ballistic data directly from a smartphone.
The core of this acquisition for Garmin is the foundational ballistic mathematics and the extensive data underpinning it. Applied Ballistics was founded by Bryan Litz, an aerospace engineer and accomplished long-range and ELR competitor. Litz is also the author of "Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting," a widely referenced text among serious long-range shooters. The cornerstone of his company’s offering is a comprehensive bullet library, featuring thousands of projectiles, each with a custom drag model derived from Doppler radar data.
This approach to ballistic data offers a distinct advantage over traditional ballistic coefficients, which simplify a bullet’s flight into a single number relative to a standardized reference shape. Litz’s custom drag models, developed from radar tracking each specific bullet throughout its flight path, accurately capture its deceleration. This includes the critical transonic zone, where even minor errors in drag data can significantly impact shot placement downrange.
This strategic move by Garmin mirrors a previous acquisition. In 2016, Garmin acquired DeLorme, a mapping and GPS company that developed the inReach satellite communicator. That technology has since been integrated throughout Garmin’s outdoor product lines, allowing current Foretrex models, for example, to receive inReach text messages and trigger an interactive SOS when paired with a compatible device. The rationale behind acquiring Applied Ballistics follows a similar pattern: to own the core technology and subsequently integrate it across a wider range of products.
The precision rifle community has closely followed Bryan Litz’s work for years, both through his research at Applied Ballistics and his participation in high-stakes ELR tournaments like King of 2 Miles. While much of this research and functionality already reaches shooters via existing Garmin devices, the company states that direct ownership of Applied Ballistics will accelerate the development of more deeply integrated products for "customers who depend on accuracy"—a description that encompasses nearly every participant in long-range shooting disciplines.
