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Title: Meet ‘The Punisher’: A Soldier’s New Weapon of Choice
Source:
Big Peace
URL Source: http://bigpeace.com/stzu/2011/02/14 ... -soldier-new-weapon-of-choice/
Published: Feb 14, 2011
Author: Sun Tzu
Post Date: 2011-02-14 10:13:26 by Happy Quanzaa
Keywords: Peace Through Strength
Views: 7340
Comments: 8
The Army Times has the goods on a new weapon tested in Afghanistan. It performed flawlessly and has our soldiers asking for more. The XM-25, Counter Defilade Target Engagement System with 25mm rounds, is semi-automatic, and includes fully integrated day/night, full-solution target acquisition/fire control. Soldiers in the field have given it the nickname “The Punisher.” The Times reports: “Since its first contact Dec. 3, the XM25 has been in nine engagements with two units at different locations, officials said. Specifically, it has disrupted two insurgent attacks on observation posts, taken out two PKM machine gun positions and destroyed four ambush sites. In one engagement, an enemy machine gunner was “so badly wounded or so freaking scared that he dropped [his] weapon” and ran, said Lt. Col. Christopher Lehner, Program Manager Individual WeaponsThere were no casualties among units carrying the XM25 in those nine engagements, Lehner said. “No longer can the enemy shoot at American forces, then hide behind something,” said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller of Program Executive Office Soldier. “This is a revolutionary weapon. This is a game-changer.” The XM25 has a target acquisition system that calculates range with the push of a button. The data is transferred to an electronic fuse, enabling the 25mm round to explode over the target and rain shell fragments on the enemy. All five prototypes were sent to Afghanistan in November. Officials are putting the final touches on data and analysis, but said Col. Douglas Tamilio, project manager for soldier weapons, said the weapons “performed flawlessly” and no maintenance issues showed. Soldiers have been so pleased with the XM25 that they are carrying it as a primary weapon, and not bothering to bring an M4 as a secondary weapon, said Maj. Christopher Conley, who monitored the employment of XM25 on behalf of PEO Soldier. Lehner said the tests revealed only one problem: The units didn’t want to give the Punisher back.”
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#1. To: Happy Quanzaa (#0)
Let’s take the best-case scenario and say that this new weapon, the XM25, makes every American infantry squad so lethal that the Taliban and the Iraqi insurgents lose a huge number of men and can’t afford stand-up fights any more. What that would do is force an accelerated evolution in the same direction guerrilla war’s been evolving for more than 100 years: away from trying to fight the invading army on its own terms and toward assassination, bombs, betrayal—all the ways insurgents love to fight and conventional armies hate. In practical terms, that means more Taliban enlist in the Afghan Army and wait for the chance to mow down the Western soldiers who are supposedly their buddies. Or more Taliban go home and wait until we lose interest and go home, then dig up their buried guns and go stomp their less-militant neighbors. Or, worst and most likely of all these scenarios, more Taliban forget about chancing a firefight and stick to IEDs. According to the U.S. Army’s own newspaper, the Army Times, IEDs now account for 75 percent of American casualties in Afghanistan. Most of our GIs are not dying or being wounded in the kind of firefight the XM25 is designed to win. They’re dying in a much nastier way: getting blown up by remote control while they patrol rural Afghan dirt roads. And unfortunately, the only effect a gee-whiz weapon like the XM25 is likely to have is raising that figure closer to 100 percent.
#2. To: Godwinson (#1)
The Army Times is neither written by or officially sanctioned by the Army, anymore than The Navy Times, The Air Force Times are officially sanctioned. They are news wire compilation rags. Fail again.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestTHE WAR NERD: XM25: GEE WHIZ, HOW CAN WE BE LOSING WITH SUCH COOL STUFF?
Replies to Comment # 1. According to the U.S. Army’s own newspaper, the Army Times
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