Meet The XM-25 Supergun

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Kyle Mizokami, National Interest: Meet the XM25 Supergun: The Ultimate Weapon the Army Said No To

The weapon was heavy, with a basic load of the weapon and thirty-six grenades weighing a whopping thirty-five pounds.

The U.S. Army has officially terminated the “Punisher.” The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, or “Punisher,” was designed to engage enemy troops behind cover. While successful, the high-tech infantry weapon was the victim of a lengthy development period, ballooning costs, a perceived lack of utility and a 2013 incident that wounded a soldier carrying it.

Since the dawn of the firearm age, one of the biggest obstacles to hitting people with a bullet was the cover they could hide behind. A soldier can hide inside a doorway, or windowsill, or even a bunker, exposing himself just long enough to shoot back. Getting at that soldier requires good marksmanship and timing, outmaneuvering him, or simply blowing up the building.

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WNU Editor:  At $93,000 per XM25, not useful in close combat, and weighing 36 lbs with a full load .... no one should be surprised it was cancelled.

Pentagon Officially Ends The XM-25 Program

XM-25

Stars and Stripes: Army’s XM25 program officially goes kaput

The Army has formally terminated its effort to develop a 25 mm airburst weapon, the largest of nearly three dozen ways a Pentagon watchdog has said the military could save $2.3 billion in defense spending.

The ill-fated weapon, known as the XM25 and nicknamed “The Punisher,” was once hailed as a game-changer for ground troops who would be able to use it to target enemies hiding behind cover. But it came under closer scrutiny several years ago after schedule slippage, cost overruns and aborted operational testing in Afghanistan.

In 2016, the Pentagon inspector general recommended that the Army consider ending the program and instead invest its nearly $1 billion in funding elsewhere. The program remained in limbo since early last year, when the Army canceled its contract with main contractor Orbital ATK Inc., but an Army official overseeing the effort could not clarify its overall status.

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WNU Editor: It is too bad that they could not make it work.

Smart Ammunition Is Changing The Landscape Of Guerrilla Warfare

Magic Bullets -- The Economist

Smart ammunition is about to make things a lot more dangerous for guerrillas fighting regular troops.

IN WARFARE, an outgunned force that manoeuvres to shoot from behind cover such as rocks or the rim of a ditch can often save itself from an otherwise nearly certain rout. That, at least, was the opinion of Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian general whose treatise “On War” was the handbook of many 19th-century military men. And modern ones, too. Almost two centuries after Clausewitz committed his thoughts to print, underdog forces such as the Afghan Taliban continue to make deadly use of the art of concealment against technologically superior armies. But not, perhaps, for much longer. For a collaboration between ATK, an American firm, and Heckler & Koch, a German one, has come up with a rifle that negates the advantage of cover which Clausewitz described, by borrowing an idea from one of his contemporaries, Henry Shrapnel.

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My Comment: More info on the XM-25 can be read here.

How The "Punisher Weapon" Works

Wikipedia Commons

This New Rifle Uses Programmable Rounds To Blow Up Enemies 500 Yards Away -- Business Insider

Dubbed "The Punisher" by American forces in Afghanistan, the XM25 fires accurately up to 500 meters.

But the distance isn't what's impressing soldiers involved in the live trial of the weapon — it's its programmable 25mm round.

A target's distance is transmitted by a rangefinder in the XM25 to the round in the firing chamber. When the grenade leaves the barrel it is spiraling, like a football, and measures the distance it's traveled by the number of spirals it completes.

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My Comment: The key sentence in this report is the last one ....

.... Used in more than 200 battles, one Army platoon leader told the Army Times: "Engagements that typically take 15 to 20 minutes were over in a matter of minutes.”

Rave Reviews On The XM-25 Results In A Speeded Request For 12,000 To Be Delivered By 2014

A Soldier aims an XM-25 weapon system at Aberdeen Test Center, Md. Photo credit PEO Soldier

Thousands Of XM-25s Headed To The Troops -- Strategy Page

May 16, 2011: The spectacular success, and popularity, of the XM-25 grenade launchers in Afghanistan (since late last year, when five of them were sent to combat troops), has forced the U.S. Army to hustle and get more of them to the combat zone as soon as possible. Right now, 36 more are being hand-built (as all prototypes were), and these should be delivered to infantry units by late next year. Meanwhile, mass production has been ordered, and this will result in over 12,000 of the weapons being delivered, starting in 2014.

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My Comment: "Spectacular success" is an understatement .... soldiers in the field want this weapon yesterday.

Army Releases Promo Video Of The XM-25

XM-25 Blast Radius Revealed -- Defense Tech

The Army just released a new video showing better detail of the XM-25 Counter Defilade Engagement System’s 25mm fragmentation round performance.

We’ve posted video of the system — which Soldiers who are testing them out in Afghanistan call “The Punisher” — before, but it never really showed how the weapon shot (it’s got a brutal kick), how the targeting system works (laze, add a meter, fire) and how the 25mm round did its work (about the blast of a grenade).

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More News On the XM-25

'The Punisher': Army's New Taliban-Hunting Super Weapon -- ABC News
XM-25 Smartgun Points Toward Future of Modern Warfare -- Mobile Magazine
XM-25 computer smartgun promo video released -- Ubergizmo
US Army releases new vid of Judge Dredd computer smart-rifle -- The Register
Army pouring $66 million into 'Punisher' gun -- CNET
US Army Shows Off Its New Smart Weapons on Video Sharing Sites -- The Next Web

U.S. Soldiers Love The XM-25

Photo: The XM-25 Weapon (Image from Wikimedia)

A Super-Weapon That Works -- Strategy Page

February 10, 2011: Three months after the first five XM-25 grenade launchers arrived in Afghanistan, and after only 55 25mm rounds were fired in combat, the troops don't want to give these new weapons up. The XM-25s work as advertised, firing "smart rounds" that explode over the heads of Taliban hiding behind rocks or walls, or hiding in a cave or room. Enemy machine-guns have been quickly knocked out of action and ambushes quickly disrupted with a few 25mm shells. Encounters that might go on for 15 minutes or longer, as U.S. troops exchange fire with hidden Taliban, end in minutes after a few 25mm, computer controlled, rounds are fired from the XM-25. While American infantry love gadgets, they are very eager about electronics that helps them in combat. The XM-25 is all that, and the troops want more. In response, the U.S. Army decided to let the paratroopers keep the five XM-25s, and to speed up construction of an additional 36. The word has gotten around in Afghanistan, and every combat units there is asking for XM-25s. Although warned to keep operational details off public Internet forums, XM-25 users are telling stories to other combat troops of a wonder-weapon that actually works.

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More News On The XM-25

First reports on XM-25 Judge Dredd smartgun in A'Stan: US troops dub futuristic computer weapon 'the Punisher' -- The Register
More on the XM25 Deployment to Afghanistan -- Soldier Systems
Army wants 36 more 'Punisher' weapons in 2012 -- Army.mil
Soldiers want more 'Punisher' smart weapons -- CNET
Now Shipping: XM25 Smart Grenade Launchers For $30,000 -- Crunch Gear

XM-25 Video

My Comment: I know I have posted on this weapon before, but this video gives a more detail look at what the XM-25 is capable of.

Coming To Afghanistan: Radio-Controlled Smart Bullets Can Hit Targets Out Of The Reach Of Conventional Rifles

The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has a range of roughly 2,300 feet - and is to be deployed in Afghanistan this month

No Hiding Place From New U.S. Army Rifles That Use Radio-Controlled Smart Bullets -- Daily Mail

* Weapon hailed as a game-changer that can fire up and over barriers and down into trenches
* Soldiers will start using them in Afghanistan later this month

The U.S. army is to begin using a futuristic rifle that fires radio-controlled 'smart' bullets in Afghanistan for the first time, it has emerged.

The XM25 rifle uses bullets that be programmed to explode when they have traveled a set distance, allowing enemies to be targeted no matter where they are hiding.

The rifle also has a range of 2,300 feet making it possible to hit target which are well out of the reach of conventional rifles.

The XM25 is being developed specially for the U.S. army and will be deployed with troops from later this month, it was revealed today.

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More News On The XM25

U.S. Army Unveils 'Revolutionary' XM25 Rifle in Afghanistan -- FOX News
New rifles shoot through walls -- New York Post
Wonderwall Gun Is A Taliban Buster -- The Sun
American Soldiers in Afghanistan Now Using The XM-25 Rifle… -- Weasel Zippers

More News On The U.S. Army's XM-25

'Nowhere To Hide': U.S. Army Testing New 'Smart' Weapons In Afghanistan -- ABC News

The XM-25 Soon Will See Combat; Precision Rounds Can Be Programmed to Explode Before Impact

Nine years into the war in Afghanistan, a handful of U.S. soldiers have a new weapon in hand, a lethal combination of technology and explosives that the Army has called a "game changer."

Looking like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie, the XM-25 fires highly specialized rounds that can be programmed to explode at the precise location where the enemy is hiding behind cover.

Consider it a beefed up take on the old adage "boys and their toys."

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More News On XM-25

U.S. ground soldiers to test 'smart' rifle -- UPI
'Smart weapon' rifle debuts on Afghanistan's battlefields -- CNN
GIs testing 'smart' weapons that leave nowhere to hide -- Stars And Stripes
XM-25 Goes To War -- Strategy Page

Many Are Predicting That The XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon Will Be A Game Changer In Afghanistan

Army to Test ‘Game Changing’ Gun in Combat -- Military.com

ABERDEEN TEST CENTER, Md. -- The Army is set to send its high-tech "counter defilade" weapon to the war zone in the next few months, the first real-world deployment for the much-anticipated XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon.

Officials announced May 5 that a group of Army Special Forces Soldiers will take the weapon with them to Afghanistan sometime this summer.

During live-fire demo here, Soldiers shot the Heckler & Koch-made XM-25's high-explosive rounds through the window of a simulated building, showering "enemy" mannequins inside with lethal metal fragments.

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More News On The XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon

'Smart' grenade launcher heads to Afghanistan -- CNET
US Special Forces To Adopt The XM-25 Smart Guns -- Ubergizmo
The Deadliest Army Weapon In Action -- Gizmodo
Green Berets to get Judge Dredd computer smart-rifle -- The Register
U.S. special forces taking 'smart gun' into battle this summer -- Dvice
Gallery: Firing the Army’s Biggest, Baddest Guns -- The Danger Room