WASHINGTON (AFP) â It looks and acts like something best left in the hands of Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo," but this latest dream weapon is real -- and the US Army sees it becoming the Taliban's worst nightmare. The Pentagon has rolled out prototypes of its first-ever programmable "smart" grenade launcher, a shoulder-fired weapon that uses microchipped ammunition to target and kill the enemy, even when the enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover. The gun's stats are formidable: it fires 25mm air-bursting shells up to 2,300 feet (700 meters), well past the range of most rifles used by today's soldiers, and programs them to explode at a precise distance, allowing troops to neutralize insurgents hiding behind walls, rocks or trenches or inside buildings "You get behind something when someone is shooting at you, and that sort of cover has protected people for thousands of years," Lehner said. "Now we're taking that away from the enemy forever." http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101201/sc_afp/usmilitaryweaponsafghanistan
Interesting weapon, but the recoil looks greater than that of the M203 or M79. video in thread @ http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=211280 Anyone firing that weapon all day (repetitive firing) as a primary weapon would have problems with their shoulder and spline rather quickly I would think. The damage to the shoulder and spline would probably be permanent. The other thing is one side develops a weapon like this and the opposition develops a weapon or system to counter it. case in point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Zaitsev
Still more efficient to have a kid wrapped with grenades under his coat to walk to up to the US army and detonate. Then again, the bankers are more powerful than the silly army. Waste of money to spend it on weapon development.