How would you like to get hit by something like this? Hk doesn't think so!
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Regardless of the official releases by the US Army about XM25 fielding this weapon was never going to be fielded anyway.
Too heavy. Single purpose. No close in protection. Never killed a bad guy in combat evals. Already overmatched by 500 m by the Chinese 35mm man-portable launchers and COTS 40mm MV/ER air-bursting rounds. And very likely HK could not produce a soldier proof weapon of this type.
Whether this is the reason for the treaty excuse is hard to say but this gun never had a place in an infantry squad to begin with.
Nothing more than lab welfare to the tune of $100M's and 20+ years in development and no bad guys killed to date.
Glad to see it go frankly.
G3Kurz
Too heavy. Single purpose. No close in protection. Never killed a bad guy in combat evals. Already overmatched by 500 m by the Chinese 35mm man-portable launchers and COTS 40mm MV/ER air-bursting rounds. And very likely HK could not produce a soldier proof weapon of this type.
Whether this is the reason for the treaty excuse is hard to say but this gun never had a place in an infantry squad to begin with.
Nothing more than lab welfare to the tune of $100M's and 20+ years in development and no bad guys killed to date.
Glad to see it go frankly.
G3Kurz
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1,183 Posts
In a world where cruise missiles, predator drones, or a damn spectre gunship can reach out and vaporize enemies without warning, we're drawing the moral line at a grenade launcher that shoots in a straight line instead of on an arc?
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Exactly. There is more behind this then Hague convention "restrictions".
If their issue is the air-bursting function of the grenade, HK does not even make that grenade but just the launcher.
And they also offer various other 40mm launchers that can and do fire air-bursting grenades with even larger, more "lethal" fragments.
There has been little interest in the XM25 beyond just the US Army because the frags and frag pattern is simply not worth the price tag, single-purpose, bulk and weight of the launcher.
G3Kurz
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It waz always bad form to fire at something soft with the current issue grenades. The chance of a failure to detonate and now you have a live round armed in the target area you have to assault. Air conditioner units are good for that problem, your pucker factor goes through the roof having to clear a building with a live 40mm hanging out the AC unit. Its even more fun to exit the building to find it fell out while you were sweeping the building. Other soft targets are no better. My point aiming directly at people is a bad choice, so similar to other comments this argument is thin.
It looks to me like we are way behind the com bloc weapons in one area - the RPG.
They seem to be everywhere. Lightweight, inexpensive & easy to make, stupid simple and crazy effective. Just about every major loss we endure seems to be associated with that weapon.
Operation Gothic Serpent (Black Hawk Down)
2011 QRF Chinook shoot down, Wardak (30 dead including 22 SEALs)
I'm sure there are a lot more.
And this many years later we just don't have a widely deployable analog to match this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL1UUCrB6JE
They seem to be everywhere. Lightweight, inexpensive & easy to make, stupid simple and crazy effective. Just about every major loss we endure seems to be associated with that weapon.
Operation Gothic Serpent (Black Hawk Down)
2011 QRF Chinook shoot down, Wardak (30 dead including 22 SEALs)
I'm sure there are a lot more.
And this many years later we just don't have a widely deployable analog to match this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL1UUCrB6JE
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