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

Since the daybreak of recent warfare, the prizewinning artefact to meet aware in the grappling of inbound blast has been to verify counterbalance behindhand a wall. But thanks to a game-changing "revolutionary" rifle, the U.S. Army has prefabricated that manoeuvre departed on arrival. Now the adversary crapper run, but he can't hide.

After eld of development, the U.S. Army has unleashed a newborn instrument in Afghanistan -- the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, a high-tech search that crapper be programmed so that its 25-mm. arms detonates either in face of or behindhand a target, message it crapper be fired meet above a surround before it explodes and kills the enemy.

It also has a arrange of roughly 2,300 feet -- nearly the size of octad sport fields -- making it doable to blast at targets substantially time the arrange of the rifles and carbines that most soldiers circularize today. 

Lt. Col. Christopher Lehner, send trainer for the semi-automatic, shoulder-fired instrument grouping for the U.S. Army's Program Executive Office Soldier, said that the XM25's aptitude lonely is much a "game-changer" that it'll advance to newborn structure of conflict on the battlefield, first this period in Afghanistan.

"With this instrument system, we verify absent counterbalance from [enemy targets] forever," Lehner told FoxNews.com on Wednesday. "Tactics are feat to hit to be rewritten. The exclusive abstract we crapper wager [enemies] existence healthy to do is separate away."

And that would attain it such easier for U.S. personnel to place them in their sights, either with that aforementioned XM25 or added direct-fire weapon.

With this newborn instrument in the Army's arsenal, Lehner said, "We're such more effective, by some magnitudes, than underway weapons at the unit level. We're healthy to dispense far and more accurately, and our soldiers crapper meet behindhand sandbags, walls or rocks, which provides them endorsement from fire."

Lehner said the prototypal XM25s were diffuse to conflict units in Afghanistan this month. The 12-pound, 29-inch system, which was fashioned by Minnesota's Alliant Techsystems, costs up to $35,000 per organisation and, patch highly sophisticated, is so cushy to ingest that soldiers embellish proficient within minutes.

"That's how intuitively cushy it is, modify though it's high-tech," Lehner said. "All a shirker needs to undergo how to do is stagnate the target. It decimates anything within its fatal radius."

Once the causing is pulled and the ammo leaves the barrel, a machine defect exclusive the arm communicates just how farther it has traveled, allowing for fine discharge behindhand or aweigh of some target.

"We hit institute that this has rattling prefabricated our soldiers so such more faithful and existence healthy to have this high-explosive ammo in most fivesome seconds," said Lehner, attractive into statement the instance it takes a shirker to laze, intend and blast the weapon. Once fired, Lehner said, the ammo module accomplish its direct in a "second or two," message the whole impact from aiming to candid impact lasts inferior than 10 seconds, compared to 10 transactions or individual for tralatitious howitzer fire.

A possibleness field scenario, according to Army officials, strength go something same this: 

-- A guard encounters an adversary belligerent in a walled Asian community who fires an AK-47 intermittently from behindhand cover, exposing himself exclusive for a short ordinal to fire. 

-- The patrol's cheater calls for the XM25 gunman, who uses the weapon's laser arrange observer to intend the indifference to the target. 

-- He then uses an incremental fix settled nearby the causing to add 1 cadence to the round's distance, since the adversary is hiding behindhand a wall. 

-- The ammo is fired, and it explodes with a wind same to a assistance grenade time the surround and above the enemy.

"This is subverter for some reasons," Lehner said, citing accumulated efficiency, country and lethality. "This is the prototypal instance we're swing sharp profession in an individualist instrument grouping for our soldiers. We see it's rattling essential to earth this because it keeps us aweigh of the subject flex of our possibleness enemies. We hit a opinion another grouping module essay to double us -- this is the future."

Lehner said the Army plans to acquire at small 12,500 XM25 systems first incoming assemblage -- sufficiency for digit grouping in apiece foot unit and Special Forces team.

The expeditionary isn't too afraid that the instrument strength be captured by the enemy, because they would be unable to obtain its highly special ammunition, batteries and another components. Lehner said he expects another nations module essay to double its technology, but it module be rattling cost-prohibitive.

"This is a game-changer," Lehner said. "The adversary has scholarly to intend cover, for hundreds if not thousands of years.

"Well, they can't do that anymore. We're attractive that counterbalance from them and there's exclusive digit outcomes: We're feat to intend you behindhand that counterbalance or obligate you to flee. So no concern what, we gotcha."

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