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US deploys 'game-changer' weapon to Afghanistan - Telegraph
US deploys 'game-changer' weapon to Afghanistan
It looks and acts like something best left in the hands of Sylvester Stallone's
"Rambo," but this latest dream weapon is real and the US Army sees it becoming the Taliban's worst nightmare.
The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has now been deployed to US units on the battlefields of Afghanistan Photo: AFP/GETTY
12:02AM GMT 03 Dec 2010
The Pentagon has rolled out prototypes of its first-ever programmable "smart" grenade launcher, a shoulder-fired weapon that uses microchipped ammunition to target and kill the enemy, even when the enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover.
After years of development,
the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, about the size of a regular rifle, has now been deployed to US units on the battlefields of Afghanistan, where the Army expects it to be a
"game-changer" in its counter-insurgency operations.
"For well over a week, it's been actively on patrols, and in various combat outposts in areas that are hot," said Lieutenant Colonel Chris Lehner, program manager for the XM25.
The gun fires 25mm air-bursting shells up to 2,300 feet, well past the range of most rifles used by today's soldiers, and programs them to explode at a precise distance, allowing troops to neutralise insurgents hiding behind walls, rocks or trenches or inside buildings.
"This is the first time we're putting smart technology into the hands of the individual soldier," Lt Col Lehner told AFP in a telephone interview.
"It's giving them the edge," he said, in the harsh Afghan landscape where Islamist extremists have vexed US troops using centuries-old techniques of popping up from behind cover to engage.
"You get behind something when someone is shooting at you, and that sort of cover has protected people for thousands of years," Lt Col Lehner said.
"Now we're taking that away from the enemy forever."
