After nine years of war in Afghanistan, the American Army in the country have been reportedly provided with the latest game-changing "revolutionary" rifles called the XM25, which have the capacity to figure out an enemy, even when he is hidden behind buildings or other barriers.
According to Fox News, the XM25, designed by Minnesota’s Alliant Techsystems, has been in development for about seven years and the first prototypes have been provided to US combat units in Afghanistan earlier this month.
The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System is reportedly a high-tech rifle that can be programmed so that its 25-mm ammunition does not necessarily explode on impact, but it can be set to detonate either in front of or behind a target, meaning it literally will go through a wall before it explodes and kills the enemy, the report said.
It also has a range of roughly 2,300 feet, nearly the length of eight football fields, which enables it to fire at targets well past the range of the rifles and carbines that most soldiers use these days, the report added.
Lt. Col. Christopher Lehner, project manager for the semi-automatic, shoulder-fired weapon system for the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office soldier, said that the XM25 is a "game-changer" that will lead to new ways of fighting on the battlefield, beginning this month in Afghanistan.
"With this weapon system, we take away cover from [enemy targets] forever. Tactics are going to have to be rewritten. The only thing we can see [enemies] being able to do is run away," Fox News quoted Lt. Lehner, as saying.
With this new weapon in the Army’s arsenal, Lehner said, "We’re much more effective, by many magnitudes, than current weapons at the squad level. We’re able to shoot farther and more accurately, and our soldiers can stay behind sandbags, walls or rocks, which provides them protection from fire."
The 12-pound, 29-inch system costs up to $35,000 per unit and is easy to easy to use despite being sophisticated, the report said.
"We have found that this has really made our soldiers so much more accurate and being able to deliver this high-explosive round in about five seconds," Lehner added.