If you’re in the market for a grenade launcher with a kick and you’re a US soldier, check FedEx for your new XM25 Smart Grenade Launcher, a device that shoots a “25 mm microchip-embedded high explosive round that detonates above or beside the target, showering the enemy with lethal metal fragments.” Sounds like my senior prom!
It’s a bit aged by now, but the Army just started shipping 12,500 devices, “one for each infantry squad and Special Forces team” and according to ECN Magazine they’ll ship to the rest of the soldiers in 2012 and 2013. The system has a day and night sight, and it shoots standard RPGs as well in addition to the smart round. It holds four rounds at a time and the sight is almost completely automatic – you lase your target, fire, and wait. Then there’s an explosion.
Sadly, it will be hard to get these if you’re not a current Army subscriber, so if you want to try it out I’d suggest hitting ROTC or your local recruitment center pronto.
[Lou, vacuum!]