Tri-Service

Final Tests For Smart Grenade Launcher Soldiers Dubbed "The Punisher"

A "revolutionary" smart grenade launcher designed to hit enemies sheltering behind walls or hidden in hard-to-reach places is set for "final tests" early next year.

The XM25 CDTE System, nicknamed "the Punisher", is a portable, computerised weapon currently being developed for the US Army.

It allows soldiers to set its ammunition to explode once it reaches a certain distance, meaning it can go off just after passing through a window or whilst just over the target's head, without having struck anything.

The 25mm semi-automatic weapon gives soldiers a 300-500% increase in chances of hitting targets up to 500 metres away, and features high-explosive, airburst ammunition.

It's five times more lethal at the maximum range of the M203 currently carried by the US Army and British SAS, and includes five different types of ammunition: thermobaric, flechette, training, high-explosive airbursting and nonlethal.

Features:

2x thermal sight with zoom

2x direct view optic

Laser rangefinder

Ballistic computer

Digital compass (cant, bearing, tilt)

Fuse setter

Internal display

Environmental sensors

One expert warned that there will be risks involved in its use, however.

A soldier was injured in a training exercise in Afghanistan in 2013 whilst using an earlier prototype, causing it to be withdrawn from use.

A grenade primer ignited in one of 12 test units being used, after two grenades were accidentally fed into the firing mechanism at the same time.

The gunner testing the weapon received "minor" injuries after being saved by a safety mechanism which prevented the grenade's warhead from exploding.

The XM25 has been in development since the 1990s and was originally scheduled to be widely deployed by August 2015.

The weapon's developer, Virginia-based Orbital ATK, believes the problem has now been addressed however, and told the website 'Defense News' that the US military will carry out new "qualification tests" in the spring.

It added that the XM25 will be capable of "precisely" killing hidden enemies up to 500m away, or hitting them with an air-burst at up to 700m, which can be used to disable enemies non-lethally.

Spokesman Jarrod Krull said the weapon could be in use by early 2017, adding that it "provides combat overmatch."

It's expected to cost the Pentagon £22,650 per weapon, with each round costing £36.

Justin Bronk, from defence think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the BBC:

"When it was combat-trialled in Afghanistan, it was reportedly incredibly effective."

"It's extremely useful in fairly open areas with longer ranges where there tends to be fairly hard cover in abundance - so ditches, thick walls or irrigation dykes.

"The ability to destroy targets behind cover easily and without having to wait for other fire assault is hugely useful, added to the fact that it is man-portable and usable by the average soldier."

Mr Bronk added, however, that it would not be suited to a number of environments.

"It would be of questionable value in urban situations where you are trying to do room clearing and there might be lots of civilians involved," he said.

"It is by nature quite indiscriminate - you can't see behind the cover of what you are trying to shoot behind."

"Yes, you can shoot the grenades behind windows, for example, but you'd have to be very, very sure that [the target aside] there was no-one else in the room."