New US 25mm Sniper rifle from Barret

[Bill]

http://www.barrettrifles.com/military/xm109.htm

PS- it's not really a sniper rifle. More like a plt level HW in a mechanized force.

[Praxus]

Yah, I read about that a few months ago. Very effective at assaulting buildings I might imagine.

http://www.defensereview.com/modules...rticle&sid=286
http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2004arms/session6/gates.ppt
http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2004arms/session6/lee.ppt

[Bill]

It's more to give infantry a better anti-light armor capability, and to a much greater range than presently.

With the right ammo selection, it would have a lot of uses, but it's size and weight really limit it to a mechanized force role.

[Praxus]

Perfect infantry weapon for knocking out pesky North Korean tanks. Why waste a perfectly good Javalin on a POS;)

[phalanx]

That's a burly yet quite purdy gun :)

[Bill]

Tanks would be out of this weapons engagement parameters...probably.

That is not a 25mm NATO cartridge, but looks more like the OCSW 25mm grenades. With the right 'smart' ammunition(or just HE), this would be an excellent platoon level support asset.

[Praxus]

I mean old T-34's.

[Bill]

The 25mm NATO can actually penetrate the armor of some modern MBTs....including the M-1A1HA....from certain aspects.

[Fury]

The 25mm NATO can actually penetrate the armor of some modern MBTs....including the M-1A1HA....from certain aspects.

Modern MBTs? kinda doubt that. M1A1? not even with good luck and what parts of armor do you mean, there is no such location in M1A1 that a 25mm "shorty" could penetrate if the abrams can survive RPG-7 attack from sides. Even the ancient T-34 would be immune to that 25mm, come think of it not even the 50mm german ww2 age ATgun could do much damage to it.

[Bill]

An M-1 during OIF got taken out by a Bradley's 25mm.

Bradley 25mm fire was responsible for several T-72 kills during both ODS and OIF.

There's a link to the story in one of the tank threads on the land warfare board, with quotes from the USAIO that wrote up all the AARs for ODS.

[Dragoon]

A 25mm may not be able To "kill" an MBT but it can destroy optics gunsights, and break a track, also anyone riding out of the turret would be in a lot of trouble.


I found this, It' a recoiless 25mm used by CROAT forces to take out night vision and search lights on tanks that were being used to monitor their movements. It fires a full sized round and exhaust gasses are used to counter recoil.

But I think the Barret is a much more portable and practical weapon.

Dragoon

[Bill]

The 25mm will penetrate into the engine compartment in most MBTs, even the very best of them if fired through the grill. The turret ring on the T-72 has been penetrated by 25mm fire in actual combat, as have some areas of the T-72s flank armor. Bradleys have killed T-72s with their 25mm cannon in two different wars. Far more than enough evidence that it can be done for me to dispute it.

[Fury]

It still doesn't explain how could that barret 25x59mm round go through anything but soft vechiles, C'mon the bradleys fired saboted DU penetrators with shell lenght of nearly 200mm ( wild guess ) and muzzle velocity probably near 1500m/s surely it will penetrate T-72 at certain points but that barret round has much lower velocity therefor lesser penetration power. Perhaps Its true that 25x59mm can take out MBTs but Im having hard time believing it

[metalbeast]

Well I think I read somewhere that the armor design, or patterning of the T-72 is defective, and didn't deliver the invincibility that the Russians wanted. It's a cheap tank to produce and because of that, it was widely manfactured as well as given to countries such as North Korea.

[Guest]

What about mounting this beast on a vehicle like a Hummvee or a Stryker to give it the ability to engage long range, light armored threats?