The XM-25 Smart Computerized Grenade Launcher is Headed to Afghanistan

WANT

yeah fellas looks like ima be buyin me a new gun for deer season this year

Please don't tell me that I'm the only one who sees these advances in military technology as unfair. I know we need these technologies for keeping our country safe, but really? If you're going to kill someone, at least have the dignity to kill them up close and personal.

12,000 is a lot of weapons that I don't want to be shot with... and that is probably an underestimation when you think of what DARPA might have up its sleeve...

ihatestupidpeople,

Yes, why don't we make it easier to kill our brave men and women at arm.

@Captain Obvious
We're making it easier to kill their brave men and women.

What kind of moron says one side of a war is unfair? was it fair when they blow up a school bus of kids with a drugged up suicide bomber?

If you dont think its fair, maybe you should join the army and put your life on the line.

@terterttert

They dont have brave people, terrorrists are cowards. They hide in holes and hidden facilities untill its time to attack.

@ihatestupidpeople

You are a stupid person.

Now, this looks totally kickass, and Go America

Conventional warfare is a waste of time, money and lives. Get the women and children out and then drop nukes. Done.

@ihatestupidpeople

your name says it all... too bad your one of them! If you knew anything about this war that im actually over here fighting for you, you'd know that alot of our deaths are comming from cowards who place roadside bombs and watch us die from a very comfortible distance.... Any advancement to get us away from the kill zone is welcome and we all know how to kill up close and personal if we have to jack@ss

@ihatestupidpeople

It makes me proud to serve when I see the patriotic pitbulls jump on you like that, but ease off guys. Hes not stupid just naive and probably has never lost anyone close to him to war.

Bro, let me put it to you like this:

You, and your 5 best friends are stuck in a desert mountain range of a foreign hostile country where it is considered the top honor to kill even ONE of you by ANY means necessary.

Wouldn't YOU want every advantage possible?

This is real life buddy. Not Xbox. No Re Spawns out here.

well said, cadillac!

Reminds of that song "Gears of War" by Megadeth...

@Goone2020 and @cadillac, thanks to you both for serving. @ihatestupidpeople clearly you hate yourself. Any tactic, weapon, or strategy that gives you an advantage over your enemy should be exploited. The only way to break your enemy's will to fight is by showing him that it's futile to continue and break his/her moral. If I had my way I'd let our guys push a single button to wipe them all off the face of the earth. It pisses me off when people who've probably never been in a bar fight much less a fire fight have the nerve to criticize our troops for using something that makes their job easier.

@ihatestupidpeople: dignity is for the politicians (if such a thing is possible), the biggest, baddest, smartest guns are for the troops. Excuse me: for OUR troops.

That being said, I'm curious: what is the maximum effective range for the XM-25? Most of the TIC in Afghanistan has been at a range of 400-500 meters, specifically in the mountainous border regions. Is this thing accurate enough to travel 500 meters while maintaining a reasonable enough trajectory and then detonate behind the rock that the AK-weilding, malnorished Pakistani is hiding behind? Can this system be incorporated into FOB-based MK 19s? Rate of fire? I WANT MORE DETAILS! And I want one for Christmas.

My point is simply we have way more weapons than we know what to do with. Eventually you will see this on the streets of our cities.

While I agree that while the troops are over there they should have anything and everything that would give them an advantage, I would prefer that we make advances with negotiation robots or something so the military can come home.

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison
"The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad." - James Madison
"Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations." - James Madison
"They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
"There was never a good war, or a bad peace." - Benjamin Franklin
"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature." - Benjamin Franklin
"My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth." - George Washington
"It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world." - George Washington
"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." - George Washington
"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot." - Thomas Paine

My biggest issue with this, though it is great in a sense, is that

we already accidentally kill so many innocent civilians and now we are capable of firing an explosive round directly in a room.

Terrorist use anyones home as a place to stage an attack. They fire mortars from children's bedrooms.

Be very careful with this military.

@ihatestupidpeople: Rabble rabble rabble!

Sorry, I got caught up with the mob. Seriously though, any tech that makes it safer for our boys overseas to put foot to arse for America is A-O-Kay in my book.

To those who think it is unfair, I quote a wise and venerable MCPO I once knew.

"The military does not police. It does not have compassion for the OPFOR nor does it play fair. The military of any country is built for two purposes only."

"We kill people, and we break things".

He was correct in every sense of the word. Whatever lofty roles of defense and protection of freedom, in the end, that was and still remains, our only purpose.

Military Combat is not a dueling

If you find yourself in a fair fight during combat, you screwed up!!

"Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is make the other guy die for his."

While killing and fighting wars might be fun planning for the end of it does make some sense otherwise it is genocide. So killings have to stop at some point in time otherwise you are just criminals searching for the next victim. The Afghanistan ongoing war is testimony of NATO failure to create a better future for whoever lives in that part of the world. 9 years of failures. NATO has no clear vision for Afghanistan. Right now it seems that there is more to lose than to gain in Afghanistan. Weapons will/need to silence at some point. Stop starting wars. Wars == dead people from both sides.
If every american donates 20$/month to every afghan it will have a better impact.The money needs to go directly to the people and not the corrupt politicians.
How many people are willing to relocate to Afghanistan? Right not many.
If the war is complex the end is complex too.
Fuck USA. A bunch of losers lately.

Nice, but are the grenades reusable? Because THAT would make sense.

Grenades that explode only once is bad economics.

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
George S. Patton
And this gun can help us do that.

I know that might doesn't make right but, I'm sure any American thinks that our ways are more correct than the Afghans. If the Afghans are willing to die for their ass backwards way of living, Americans will always be happy to arrange that for them.

To highermorals

There will always be war, there will always be conflicts, there will always be someone(a nation, a group) who does not approve of a country's actions and will decide to be violent in response. Society is not perfect, and the absence of war will not exist until it is.

If everyone donated $20 to the Afghanistan people, not the politicians, who is to say that wouldn't come back as $20 worth of ammo from each recipient to use against US soldiers? Congratulations, your plan just directly funded terrorism.

You think you have a better answer, get up and do something about it. The US may not always do the best thing, but they are doing something. More than you can say about yourself and most likely your country as well.

As for the weapon, it defiantly gives an edge to troops. Hope it doesn't work its way onto the black market or enemy hands.

"Nice, but are the grenades reusable? Because THAT would make sense.

Grenades that explode only once is bad economics."

Or, non-reusable grenades means employing more companies here to make them :)

There must be something better than pulling the trigger. Is not like the terrorists will kill all the people from USA and Europe. Today 90 people will die in car accidents in USA( 33,808/year) and less than that in Europe. Compared with dying in traffic dying in war is much more honoros.
Tomorrow 100 more people will die in car accidents in USA and probably 80 in Europe. Americans and Europeans are doing to themselves a much better job than the terrorists.

Eeesh - amazing article but lots of crazy posts.

First - always honor your enemy. Treat them as an equal. And respect the fact that they want to blow you up as much as you want to blow them up. Terrorists aren't cowards, they are trained soldiers. They just salute a different flag.

As for killing up close and personal - quaint but not the way of a war. Obliterate your enemy with such overwhelming force they don't want to fight again. Better yet - do it once and then offer a hand of peace. Worked in Japan, worked in Germany and will work here.

cadillac,

respect to the brave people who goes into hostile areas and make a stand.
But if people don't want to be killed, attacked or hated, the best strategy is not to kill more of the people who hates you, or kill more in a more sophisticated manner, but not to go to these places!
The US makes and uses bigger and more lethal weapons in foreign countries, people around the world hate the US more and more. Isn't there some coincidence here?

Concerning the gun, it looks pretty sophisticated and complex. Lots of components to fail.
Also the enemy will use it as gladly on you as you use on them. They will get some sooner or later.

So still, if people don't want to get killed better not to go into killing.

Disturbing that, while you are busy "programming & determining", a sneaky insurgent can still stick a knife into your back.

If anything, the advances in military technology is a good thing, designed to make our soldiers safer. When we started off, it was just throwing a rock at someone's general direction and hope it hits (or launch a boulder with a catapult, and hope for the same thing.) Now we point a gun at someone, and there's a pretty good chance that the person at the other end will get hit (or launch a rocket and you're probably going to hit what you aimed for, whatever that might be). Technology here is designed to safeguard the users as much as possible, being able to hit your enemy from further away with greater power and accuracy is always a good thing. At least for the person with the newest gun.

Anyone who thinks that you need war to be fair is an idiot. If people who faught them wanted them to be fair, they would line up face to face and shoot each other in turns. But only if they had the smae amount of people. No, if war was fair, we would not haave nuked Japan. If war was fair, there would only be one type of weapon. If war was fair, it would be impossible to win. Nothing is fair. So if this will allow my cousin to destroy the bad guy before the bad guy destroys him, I will gladly pay for it myself. Plus it looks BA!!!!

I want them to build a tasser land mind.

Not Only do I Want one, I want one with a hollow Stock to hold my liquor and a recess to place my GPS, cause lets face it when im tanked I can't find my way home...at least till I sober up. I also want to trade out gernades for a magnetic grapling hook & tow line. "Look at me Im a Spider Monkey!!!!"

Higher Morals-
"There must be something better than pulling the trigger. Is not like the terrorists will kill all the people from USA and Europe."

One person with one tactical nuke, or a dirty bomb ... or hey, 2 airplanes into some towers. It was almost 3, maybe you heard of this incident. Do you seriously believe that if a terrorist had the chance to kill everyone is the USA and Europe they wouldn't do it? Read beyond the local news to 3rd world countries, terrorist attacks happen all over the world on the regular. Bus loads of children by the way. They are not highly trained soldiers, they are brainwashed fanatics who will resort to anything to take out just one infidel. killing an infidel, which guess what we all are unless you are one of them, is doing the work of their god, it is called a jihad.

Yes, more people are killed in car accidents, but when you enter a car, you accept the risks and hazards that come with driving. Do you accept the risks of being killed in a horrible way just for being an infidel in their opinion? When they chose to kill innocents, they accepted the risk of retaliation.

War is horrible, but necessary. Would you prefer we had not gone to war with Hitler? That we should find a peaceful resolution? There is no reasoning with the unreasonable. Would you prefer the groups responsible for 911 go unpunished? What message would that send? Would it deter them at all, or empower them?

Couldnt someone with the right technology send a signal to the round to detonate at 0 meters?

From what I understand about this tech, no. the shell is programmed in the chamber to detonate at a specific distance. The navy has a cannon similar to this, the shell rotates in the air and a microchip counts the revolutions, 1 revolution may equal 3 yards or whatever. So you program the shell to explode in 12 yards, the shell makes 4 revolutions and explodes.

and just think coming to a police department near you soon....that is what happens you know