This Should Have Been the Ultimate Grenade Launcher but Flopped

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By Kyle Mizokami,The National Interest

The U.S. Army has officially terminated the “Punisher.” The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, or “Punisher,” was designed to engage enemy troops behind cover. While successful, the high-tech infantry weapon was the victim of a lengthy development period, ballooning costs, a perceived lack of utility and a 2013 incident that wounded a soldier carrying it.

(This first appeared earlier in the year.)

Since the dawn of the firearm age, one of the biggest obstacles to hitting people with a bullet was the cover they could hide behind. A soldier can hide inside a doorway, or windowsill, or even a bunker, exposing himself just long enough to shoot back. Getting at that soldier requires good marksmanship and timing, outmaneuvering him, or simply blowing up the building.

The XM25 was designed to make cover obsolete. The Punisher is a semi-automatic 25-millimeter grenade launcher that fires programmable grenades. The user can program grenades to fly inside the doorway and explode just inside, peppering anyone there with lethal shrapnel. It could also do the same with windows and bunkers, and can be programmed to explode above trenches and foxholes.

The XM25 saw limited active service but among the troops, it had a tepid reception. The weapon was heavy, with a basic load of the weapon and thirty-six grenades weighing a whopping 35 pounds. It was only useful under certain circumstances and was not useful at all in close combat. In 2013, a Ranger unit in Afghanistan refused to take along the weapon, preferring to take an M4 instead.