This XM-25 weapon system was long time coming in the US arsenal but it has some serious drawbacks.
Is this from experience?
a. Its too cumbersome & relatively heavy to carry and use by a grunt in the field along with its ammunition which is almost the size of a 40mm grenade!!
No...It is not. The M249 light machine gun weighs 7.5kg empty. The XM25 weighs 6.5kg empty.
b. It only works for shelters that are exposed from a side (like a broken wall, behind a large rock, behind a tree, a road-side ridge etc).
No...It is more versatile than that. Plus...You are underestimating the ingenuity of the average soldier out in the field. Anyway...The items you listed are most readily available in most combat situations. In Afghanistan, there are not that many urban areas with buildings several stories tall. Finally, after first shot, everyone scramble for cover, a large rock or a tree five meters away is better than an APC fifty meters away.
It will not work if the shooter is perched inside a building or a built-up shelter.
If there is an opening, one of these XM25 grenade rounds can be launched inside.
c. The rifle requires practice in precision shooting by the soldier something similar to that of a sniper. One has to first select & aim at the right spot and then shoot. This requires good a minute or two to get done in day and night using either day scope or TI. Generally in a field fire-fight, the soldiers do not have that much of the time in hand to return rapid fire using M-16 variants.
Wrong...The laser range finder is only a 'ruggedized' version of the venerable police speed radar or the kind used by hunters. Laser rangefinders such as these...
Nikon Rangefinders - Rangefinder Laser : Cabela's
...Do not require one minute warm up time or any more technical sophistication beyond the typical house light switch.
Here is another example...
Nikon Monarch Laser 1200 Rangefinder 7481 Nikon 1200 range finder gold 8358 8358-DEMO
The Nikon Monarch Gold Laser 1200 laser range-finder measures ranges in either yards or meters, has full scanning capability and features an automatic power shutoff after the reading has been displayed for eight seconds.
Reviews for Nikon Monarch Laser 1200 Rangefinder 8358 - View or add your review!
After a long search, I was left with two choices. This Nikon 1200 or the Leica Rangemaster CRF 1200. Leica has the better name and finer laser but it has three big drawbacks. 1) only water resistant up to 1 meter. 2) $150+ more than the Nikon 1200. 3) relies on an antiquated "reflective" laser ranging. This Nikon is waterproof! It also ranges in the dark since it does NOT use reflective technology like most other laser rangefinders! At under $400, it's a great value for something that ranges up to 1200 yards/meters. Easy one-button operation and one-button mode change. Nice battery saver feature and the 7x zoom is FANTASTIC! The view is also not cluttered with a bunch on useless junk so you get full view of what you want to range. It also has a backlight feature for low light use. The ranging time is fast... almost instantaneous. FREAKING AMAZING! No regrets here!
A hunter cannot afford to wait a minute for the laser rangefinder to power up and measure. The prey could be lost. So if the Nikon 1200 can auto shut off after eight seconds it can be power on quite instantly. The XM25 is sophisticated enough to make training and usage as simple as possible and the manufacturer succeeded.
However, let us see the claimed effectiveness of this weapon system in the field trials in Afghanistan. However I have serious doubts that it will replace the user-friendly 5.56 or 7.62 rifle system currently used by millions of soldiers!
Not every trooper will be assigned this grenade launcher. One per squad will be enough, and because it is so simple to learn and use, anyone can pick it up in a fight if necessary. If there is an explosion over your head and shrapnels are not merely raining down upon you but is actually propelled, if you are not killed or crippled, you will move and that could expose you to small arms fire.
