U.S. Army Unveils 'Revolutionary' XM25 Rifle in Afghanistan

Fox News ^ | November 28, 2010 | Joshua Rhett Miller

[Karliner]

Thanks Pan_Yan. It’s better than the stuff I could find.

[Wizdum]

Programmable. Each round can be given a designated target and then the rounds are programed in the magazine for that target. All the operator has to do is aim, laze, fire after that.
It's a whole lot more than 'daddy's shotgun' with special ammo. It's a way to hit outside the small arms range and guarantee a hit. It's what is called 25mm Short. Same types of projectiles as the 25mm Chain gun on the Apaches, but range is about half. Accuracy. MOA accurate. Look for it to be incorporated into the Barrett system also.

[mamelukesabre]

Yes it is, but they already could do that with the OICW, iirc.

[mamelukesabre]

You didn’t see my post 11

[mamelukesabre]

bah!

It’s the gun sights plus the ammo. the gun is ho hum.

[Pan_Yan]

I’ll take your word for it. I’m not a weapons expert (former submariner) by any stretch. I was reading articles about Afghanistan and this scrolled by. Hadn’t been posted so I put it up. I’ll let the experts hash out the pros and cons.

[Ron C.]

Good grief - this thing is 'non-lethal' - primarily to disable, confuse or scare an opponent, not to kill them.

It's a 35K firecracker distributor - albeit, a fairly accurate one.

"Game changer"?? Yeah, if you don't want to kill your opponents, and that is the wrong kind of 'change' for a battlefield - kinda like Obama's change, all of it senseless and highly questionable.

[MortMan]

A rugged, reliable method for programming the ammo is pretty damned impressive, too.

[Kickass Conservative]

Semantics my FRiend, semantics... LOL

[CodeToad]

Ammo isn’t cheap, either.

[dljordan]

Just the thing for your local SWAT team and those pesky wrong address raids.

[ThunderSleeps]

12 lbs!? That's more than an M-14! That's not going to be popular humping it up and down the "hills" in Afghanistan...

Guess it'll be a special weapon, like a SAW or a sniper...

[Wizdum]

I was still putting my post together. Yes, the ammo is the impressive part, but it has to be coupled to that scope, which is the real star of the program.

Look for it to come on a number of sniping variations from the Barrett to the M-14, to some of the AR systems. It will calculate total atmospheric conditions before the operator fires.

[umgud]

When will the surplus ammo start showing up at Cabelas?

[piytar]

Actually, if it’s the system I’m thinking about, the ammo can be “non-lethal.” But it can also be “lethal as H#ll.”

[omega4179]

No sir that is just one type of ammo.

# Caliber: Low-velocity 25 x 40 mm grenade.

* Thermobaric
* Flechette
* Training
* High-explosive airbursting.
* Non-lethal

# Range: 500 m point, 1000 m area.

[Pan_Yan]

12 lbs!? ... That's not going to be popular humping it up and down the "hills" in Afghanistan...

Which brings up an interesting question. I wonder how much 'humping up and down the hills' our forces do in Afghanistan? I know it's not flat like Iraq, where everyone seemed to be in Humvees all the time.

[Captainpaintball]

Great. Does it have a cell phone hooked up to it, so they can immediately call the lawyer JAG-offs to ask them if they are allowed to fire the G-d damned thing at the blessed, sacred mooselimb scumf-cks?? This war would be over 6 years ago if we were allowed to KILL THEM...

[4rcane]

This is excellent. In the past US have to call in air strike, if this weapon is distributed to every squad, we could reduce time and cost to kill a well barricade enemy

[ThunderSleeps]

I wonder how much 'humping up and down the hills' our forces do in Afghanistan?

Dunno... I almost had first-hand knowledge of the area - I volunteered for an assignment there, but wasn't selected. (skill set just a bit off from the requirements)