XM25 CDTE supposed to be fielded late 2015

[John Kettler]

There seems to be some conflicting information on it. XM25 was loved by some of the troops during its first 14-month combat assessment in Afghanistan, but the Rangers judged it not worth the weight penalty, too small basic ammo load and other issues, so refused to take it on a raid. But wait. The good news is that once in production, the M25 will come in at around $35K/weapon and "only" $55/shot! Depending on whom you believe, the magazine holds 4, 5 or will hold a still undetermined number of rounds. Some of the things I've read say the XM25 assessed in Afghanistan weighs 14 pounds, which presumably is a loaded weight, but efforts have been underway since to pare this and sort out fire control system problems. Nor does there seem to be agreement on the range. Some cite 500 meters, one said 600, while a third gave 500 vs point targets and 700 vs area targets. The comments at the links and vids are quite interesting, including one from a guy who used one of the prototypes and never got the hang of it. Says he went back to his 320. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. The Indirect Fire (so it's described) M320 has the airburst capabilities of the Direct Fire XM25 but only half the range and far less capable sensors. It's supposed to be complementary.

 

For some reason, there's no audio on these short vids of the XM prototypes. Even so, there's some excellent test footage of the 25 mm HEAB shell in action, together with a look at the components, including the all-important pieces that talk to the shell before firing. Evidently, there will be a breaching round and a light armor killer. Firing test of both are in the vids.

 

 

 

Am a bit befogged and can't remember where I read it, but this weapon is so simple to operate Army tests showed that someone who already knew how to shoot an M4 could use an XM25 with only 5 minutes of instruction! Now, that's what I call real saving on training costs. I have to close this with some useful info, a bit of levity and further confusion. Modern Firearms says the XM-25 has a battery failure mode for the sight which still allows DF and automatically switches the shells to PD fuzing. It say the XM25 has a 6-round magazine (we're now up to three reported magazine sizes plus one undetermined), but my hands down favorite is this exquisite typo-cum-malaprop. 

 

"It also will improve lethality and hit probability thanks to the rage-finding day/night sight"

 

The moral here is clear. If you ever believe you might be shot at with one of these things, it's best to stay chill. If you suffer from anger management issues, call this information potentially life saving and an excellent reason to take up meditation!

 

Regards,

 

John Kettler

Edited March 14, 2015 by John Kettler

[gunnersman]

Why isnt there a 40mm version of this? 6 Pack attack plus timed fuse = bad day for the enemy.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkor_MGL

[panzersaurkrautwerfer]

 

 

Why isnt there a 40mm version of this? 6 Pack attack plus timed fuse = bad day for the enemy.

 

Weight.  It's the same reason the Rangers did not like the base model, and why MGL type launchers haven't got much traction.  If you've thrown body armor, rifle, 300ish rounds, water, NVGs, optics and batteries on a guy, he's already pretty weighed down.  Adding an entirely different weapon system and ammunition might make the guy simply fall over.  The weight of an M320 and rounds is not insignificant but there's a lot less than an XM25 or a larger system. 

 

Re: Rangerjection

 

The Rangers work in a way that could best be described as raid-centric.  Basically they're going to be whatever transport is mission proper (often helicopters, but in Iraq they borrowed Strykers pretty often because of how quiet and fast they could be), get booted out, and then do whatever they're there to  do  (generally seize HVTs, although hostage rescue, or high risk cache/insurgent node seizure pops up sometimes).  

 

To that end most of the fighting they do is with the initiative, and rapid movement onto and through the objective is of the paramount.  They also tend to have priority on support assets to a rather insane degree*

 

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, being suddenly under fire from a covered position while on patrol is a reality.  This makes the weight trade off more attractive because while the Rangers use the grenade launcher a fair bit, they're often using it as a launcher for other things (flares, LTL, etc), and often they're attacking the enemy in his hole where he is less likely to be behind hard cover.  Some 10th Mountain platoon however is much more likely to be checking out the local villages to see if they're still living in the 13th century, and as part of that wander into an ambush from the sort of positions the XM25 smites well.

 

*In what I view as a giant mistake, the course you take prior to being eligible for command or senior staff positions as a Captain is shared between Armor, Infantry, and Special Forces types.  My class tragically was a mix of one former scout (me), one tanker, two international students (one from Ghana, the other from Croatia), one lost aviator (they could take our course too) seven light infantry type guys, and then a whopping seven special forces bound dudes.  One of the SOF dudes had been in the Rangers from 2LT until he showed up to the course.  And I kid you not, every scenario revolved around "well we can just use our air support for that" for him.  It's like his brain just couldn't comprehend that not everyone was followed by a platoon of Apaches, an AC-130, and an element of F-16s just waiting for the word to do something.  I was about ready to kill him when he said "well in a real war, the air force would handle this!" during our heavy mechanized defense scenario which involved holding off a enemy mechanized battalion with our assigned mech infantry team.   

[antaress73]

Btw.. The XM-25 is an effective BTR killer when shooting at the side armor.. But dont try the front unless you want to lose a whole squad to a 30mm burst

Edited March 15, 2015 by antaress73