Quote Originally Posted by tequila View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by carl
Does anyone know how the XM-25 is working out?

Apparently the grenade launcher system has deployed to Afghanistan in very limited numbers, with limited results.

Quote:
The XM-25 has fired 55 rounds in nine firefights between Dec. 3 and January 12, when the formal Forward Operational Assessment ended. Officials say the weapon “disrupted” two insurgent attacks against an observation post, destroying one PKM machine gun position in one of those attacks. That is where the ”usually our engagements last for 15-20 minutes. With the XM-25 they’re over in a few minutes” line came from.

The XM-25 also “destroyed” four ambush sites during engagements on foot patrols or movements to contact. In one instance, the 25mm HE round exploded on a PKM gunner and he was either wounded and fled or scared and fled, but dropped his machine gun, which Soldiers later recovered.

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/2011/02/in...#ixzz1KLN
[/URL].
Was the US Army expected to report that initial use of the pre-production XM25 was disappointing, inconclusive or going well ? Did anyone expect something more than a folksy anecdotal press release ?

Re-reading the PR blurb it may even include some double counting. One predictable outcome of the XM25 project is that those who devised and promoted it for issue to each “infantry squad and special forces team” will be seeking cover from verbal fire. [Quote from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM25_CDTE]

Currently the US Army infantry squad has a squad leader plus two 4-man teams each equipped with a 5.56mm LMG and three 5.56mm carbines/rifles, or an LMG plus 2 carbines/rifles and a 5.56 or 7.62mm DMR. To provide baton, buckshot, HE, smoke, AP and other chemical support each team has at least one carbine/rifle fitted with a 1.5kg single-shot UBL attachment that can fire a 40x46mm LV projectile weighing 160 to 180gm to about 150m against point targets, or 350m against area targets. The squad leader may also have a UBL attachment.

The 6-shot semi-automatic XM25 was ostensibly developed as a partial successor for the M203 UBL. Weighing about 6.5kg unloaded the XM25 includes an electronic ranging and fuzing system and can fire a projectile of about 100gm (estimated on basis of acceptable recoil into the shoulder) at more than 200m/sec. Its reported range with a low elevation trajectory is up to 500m against point targets and 700m against area targets.

However, the infantry squad is intimately concerned with close range firepower extending outward to rifle range. So is a squad or team likely to relinquish one or more of its simple, rugged and ubiquitous 40x46mm UBLs in exchange for the substantial capability and system weight of an XM25 ? That’s as likely to happen as requiring one of its infantrymen to give up hand grenades because the Claymore is available.

Also - unlike the Claymore - the XM25 is an attempt to validate the attractive ballistic paradigm in which a sophisticated sight overcomes dispersion with range and hence improves the feasibility of a small payload. For the infantry squad and even were it to be carried in place of one of the LMGs, it is apparent that adding an XM25 together with its need for yet another variety of ammunition would be burdensome.

Due to its system weight, complexity and range capability the XM25 should have been developed as a platoon support weapon rather than as a component of squad level fire and movement. The question that keeps surfacing is ‘ Was it necessary to develop a flyweight range of 25mm ammunition ’ ?

Currently there are three basic types of 40mm grenade ammunition (approx data from Wiki etc):
40x46 LV: 160 to 180g at 75m/sec, max effective range 350m from M4/M203 (5.5kg unloaded);
40x51mm MV: 160 to 180g at 110m/sec, max eff rge 700m from M32 MGL (5.5kg unloaded);
40x53mm HV: 240gm at 230m/sec, max eff rge 1600m from Mk47 AGL (inc tripod 30kg unloaded).

A strong selling point for the XM25 has been that its air-burst proximity to target derives from a precise correlation of range and spin count. Presumably - but not certainly - that fuze performance and also weight have been evaluated against those of the air-burst fuzes that are already available for 40mm grenades.

Regardless of the brilliance of its ranging/fuzing system, there are at least two alternatives to the XM25. One, development of a magazine-fed semi-automatic weapon to fire 40x53mm HV ammunition from a recoilling over-the shoulder barrel. Such a weapon might have an unloaded weight with bipod up to the 12kg of the M240 MG and yet be acceptable at platoon level provided it could deliver radio and impact fuzed 240gm projectiles accurately to say at least 300m, and 900m against area targets. To reduce system weight it might be practicable to also fire LV and/or MV rounds.

Two, there is the less ambitious but rapid LV/MV path adopted by the USMC with the 6-round M32 semi-automatic MGL as a platoon or squad weapon. It has a capable sight that can be used to fire 40x46mm LV rounds with better accuracy than the M203. It can also fire 40x51mm MV rounds to about 275m against point targets, and 700m on a high trajectory against area targets. The 13-man USMC squad with three 4-man teams seems well structured to add one M32 and drop one LMG or other auto weapon.