As long as human beings have existed, who have fought wars, there has always been one little problem on the battlefield: what do you do if the bad guy is behind something hard? From World War One trenches to Iraq and Afghanistan streets, infantrymen never had to learn to handle opponents smart enough not to take direct fire. Cover is an area where friendlies can hide behind, and troops have spent decades attempting to bypass it.
That necessity was the driving force behind the creation of the XM25, a revolutionary firearm that would redefine the face of infantry combat. The XM25 wasn’t to equip small units with the ability to shoot at targets behind walls, ditches, or such cover, as would be possible with ordinary rifles or grenade launchers.
It was an Orbital ATK product and not just another grenade launcher—it was a semi-automatic shoulder-fired 25mm ammo-bursting-in-mid-air system. It soon was nicknamed by soldiers as the “Punisher,” and they had good reasons for it.
What was revolutionary was its intelligence. The weapon had a laser rangefinder which could accurately measure the distance to whatever it was aimed at, even if that something was concealed behind glass or bunkered in a foxhole. Engaged by flames, the fire control mechanism would explode the grenade at a pre-set location, raining shrapnel on anyone who tried to stay hidden.
It also gave it a range, a 600-meter effective point target range, and 700 meters on clusters, considerably further than the ancient M203 grenade launcher could manage. Its sights were also digital, and thermal imaging and ballistic computer controlled each round. Even. The Zmians employed high-tech grenades, small chips inside that tracked their spin and instructed them precisely when to detonate.
The XM25 fought in Afghanistan after a small quantity of prototypes were issued to the 101st Airborne Division with a few hundred rounds. Troopers’ reports of its use were over the top. It was called a game-changer, something that made enemy cover effectively irrelevant. The Army worshiped it briefly as one of its most treasured gems, anticipating that it would fill a niche that had plagued ground troops for decades.
But the enthusiasm did not last. The XM25 had a fatal flaw—it was too heavy. The gun itself weighed over 14 pounds in its unloaded state, and with the back loaded with dozens of rounds of ammunition strapped to it could weigh as much as over 35 pounds. For grunts already burdened with rifles, ammo, body armor, and gear, the added weight was more than they could bear. Several units simply refused to operate with it and returned to the lighter, more agile M4 carbine.
The second challenge was expense. Each launcher was a staggering expense, more than $90,000, and the program itself became more expensive in the long term. In 2017, the Army terminated its deal with Orbital ATK because of issues with production and cost factors, making the system too expensive. The “Punisher,” so touted, collected dust.
Its performance does not stop there. While the XM25 never reached the common battlefield, it has left its indelible mark in making it a part of shaping the future that is evolving. Thousands of innovations, most of which have been introduced into the design of the Precision Grenadier System, were conceived through the process of testing it in the field.
The new system promises to offer lighter and more efficient counter-defilade capability. Early concepts were for a 500-meter-reach gun capable of firing rounds that could hit not only hidden fighters, but also cars and even UAVs.
For the operators, the XM25 was as much a milestone as it was a failure. As Don Sando, one of the Army’s senior commanders, once put it, fighting against foes behind cover is an issue that will never be fixed by a single technology. The XM25 didn’t succeed entirely, but it set the military on the right course to do so. Although the gun itself might be perhaps no improvement, its heritage lives on and its vision—to remove the gamble of cover on the battlefield—dictates the way soldiers will fight in the years to come.