Rules Have Changed: You can run, but you can't hide

Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey – An Army Colonel says that the rules of conventional warfare just changed this month with the introduction of the XM-25 on the battlefields of Afghanistan.

An airburst grenade launcher with a range of 8 football fields that fires projectiles programmed to explode either just in front of or just behind the target will forever eliminate an enemy's capacity to take cover and hide from riflemen.

Designed by the German manufacturer Hechler & Koch Arms, the weapons system has been developed under licensure by a Minnesota corporation, Alliant Techsystems, at Picatinny Arsenal.

The operator “paints” the target with a built-in laser beam, then selects the detonation pattern for the projectile. Tests have proven that any competent rifleman may be trained and become proficient with the weapon in a very short period of time. Cost to the government is $35,000 per unit.

Material science, manufacturing processes, virtual reality and simulation, image processing, and non-destructive testing are capabilities available to the private sector at Picatinny Arsenal through the Army Research and Development Command.