XM25 "good enough"

[Tukhachevskii]

Let us talk about the possible functions and the needed ammuntion:

a) Rapdily eliminating or suppressing enemy targets on open ground and in defilade from short to long distances with a low risk of collatoral damage and relative lightweight rounds. The small burst radius should allow a short (10m?) arming range-> HEAB

b) Defeating or stopping lightly armored targets, such as vehicles or personnel behind cover at short to long ranges.-> AP (HEAT?), HEAB

c) Killing enemies at close range, for example while clearing a house or a trench Essentially selfdefense, this task is better left to other soldiers. -> Sabot Slug ( good range, good, safe penetration power), Buckshot/Flechette ( very short range, medium penetration), not armed HEAB

d) Breeching doors. -> Breeching round

e) Crowd/Riot control. Less-than-Lethal rounds -> bean bags, soft slugs. I'm generally sceptical about their use, but it should be possible to create some sensbile ones to give trained hands an important toolset.

f) Training. -> Training round

g) Coudln't the XM25 provide a very useful small unit (plt level) air-defence weapon against small tactical UAVs (not the UCAV though) with its flachette rounds?


The Swedes have been busy too; The Swedish Squad Support Weapon Programme