Army Spends Big on Smart Grenade Rifle



The Army is moving ahead smartly with its XM25 shoulder fired, semi-automatic 25mm grenade launcher with plans to spend $34 million on further development in 2011 and a production start slated for 2012, according to service budget documents. The Army plans to buy at least 12,500 of the weapons beginning in 2012, enough to put one in each infantry squad and special forces team, according to PEO Soldier.

The futuristic looking XM25 fires a “smart” High Explosive Airburst round out to around 600 meters. The smart round is a “counter defilade” round, designed to blast enemy infantry taking cover behind walls, cars, in trenches as well as enemy fighters dumb enough to be standing out in the open. The Army calls the weapon a “leap ahead” technology.

The XM25 uses a laser rangefinder to target the enemy, then the weapon’s micro-computer accounts for air pressure, temperature and the 25mm round’s ballistics, feeds that information to a microchip in the round itself programming it to detonate directly over the target. With a 600 meter effective range, it would provide small teams greatly enhanced lethality well beyond that of rifles and machine guns. The Army claims that tests showed the XM25 with the high-explosive round is 300 percent more lethal than current squad level weapons.

The XM25 could prove enormously useful to troops in Afghanistan battling Taliban insurgents that typically fire from the cover of tree lines and from behind mud walls. This is the first weapon, at least that I have seen, that could provide infantry with a lethal, accurate and effective grenade launcher that exceeds that of the ubiquitous RPGs carried by insurgent groups around the world.

One potential weakness I've noticed is that the XM25 only has a four round magazine. The Army believes the weapon's lethality will come from its pinpoint accuracy rather than rate of fire.

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