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Tag: Weapons
The Assault Breacher Vehicle
In comes “The Joker.”
That’s the nickname given by the crew to one of the 72-ton, 40-foot (12-meter)-long Assault Breacher Vehicles. Fitted with a plow and nearly 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) of explosives, the Breachers, as they are commonly known, are the Marines Corps’ answer to the deadliest threat facing NATO troops in Afghanistan: thousands of land mines and roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices, that litter the Afghan landscape.
The Breachers, metal monsters that look like a tank with a cannon, carry a 15-foot (4.5-meter) -wide plow supported by metallic skis that glide on the dirt, digging a safety lane through the numerous minefields laid by the Taliban.
If there are too many mines, the Breachers can fire rockets carrying high-grade C-4 explosive up to 150 yards (meters) forward, detonating the hidden bombs at a safe distance so that troops and vehicles can pass through safely.
The detonations — over 1,700 pounds (770 kilograms) of Mine Clearing Line Charges — send a sheet fire into the air and shock waves rippling through the desert in all directions.
Reporters watched the “Breacher” in action Wednesday as Marines edged closer to Marjah, a southern Taliban stronghold that NATO commanders plan to attack in the coming days in the largest joint NATO-Afghan operation of the Afghan war. Troops are expected to face a massive threat from mines and roadside bombs as they push into Marjah, 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul.
“This may be the largest IED threat and largest minefield that NATO has ever faced,” says Brig Gen. Larry Nicholson, the commander of all Marines in southern Afghanistan.
Several Breachers — including “The Joker” and its twin “Iceman” — will be used in the Marjah assault. Commanders hope they will make a huge difference as troops pierce through layer after layer of minefields circling the town.
“I consider it to be a truly lifesaving weapon,” said Gunnery Sgt. Steven Sanchez, 38, leader of a platoon from the 2nd Marines Combat Engineers Battalion.
A cross between a bulldozer and Abrams tank with a 1,500-horsepower turbine engine, Breachers are so valuable that they only travel outside bases along with a tank retrieval vehicle to drag them to safety if they are damaged.
Sanchez’s platoon drove Breachers in their first combat operation in December, when Marines reclaimed a section of the heavily mined Now Zad valley farther north in Helmand province. “We made history, and the Breacher did well,” says Sanchez, of Palm Desert, Calif.
“I’m happy to see that this monster is on our side,” said Rahim Ullah, a machine gunner in the Afghan army unit that will fight alongside the Marines.
A few kinks are yet to be worked but before the Breachers are entirely up to speed. Two charges fired by “The Joker” and “Iceman” on Wednesday didn’t go off automatically, forcing one of their crew to dismount and trigger the explosives themselves.
Developed by the Marines since the 1990s and costing US$3.5 million apiece, the Breacher still has room for improvement, Sanchez admits.
“It’s not in the testing phase anymore, but it sure as hell still is in the deployment phase,” he said, adding that all the Marines serving on his Breacher platoon are volunteers and intent on improving the new weapon.
“I’m convinced it’s going to prove itself in Marjah,” Sanchez said.
Many on his platoon believe the Breacher has already proven its worth. The Joker’s vehicle commander, Cpl.Michael Turner, 21, of Provo, Utah, says his Breacher works even better than he’d thought during training.
“She’s surprisingly easy to operate,” Turner said. His vehicle can travel at 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour. When plowing for bombs, it can still move at 5 to 8 mph (8 to 13 kph), depending on the terrain — all the while digging up the dirt 14 inches (36 centimeters) deep.
“That’s plenty enough to get the IEDs,” said Turner, because any explosive buried deeper is unlikely to be triggered by a vehicle driving by.
The Joker’s driver, Sgt. Jeremy Kinsey, 23, from Sunny Side, Washington, even triggered a live IED during his Breacher’s first combat outing in December. The 60-pound (27-kilogram) bomb exploded on his plow, powerful enough to rip out a tire or an axle from a normal armored vehicle.
The Breacher barely registered. “It shook slightly,” Kinsey said. “I laughed and I drove on.”
Deadly Conventional Weapon of the Day: The XM-25
This weapon is so smart it can pick off an enemy no matter where he’s hiding.
God Bless America!
At first glance, the XM-25 looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie. It features an array of sights, sensors and lasers housed in a Target Acquisition Fire Control unit on top, an oversized magazine behind the trigger mechanism, and a short, ominous barrel wrapped by a recoil dampening sleeve.
Unlike a Hollywood prop, however, this weapon is very real and designed to accurately deliver an explosive round that neutralizes targets at distances of up to 700 meters – well past the range of the rifles and carbines that most Soldiers carry today.
“What makes this weapon system truly revolutionary is the ability to target the enemy, pass on this information to the sensors and microchips of its 25mm HEAB round, and have that round detonate over the target,” explained Maj. Shawn Murray, a Soldier Weapons assistant product manager in PEO Soldier, the organization responsible for developing the XM-25.
U.S. Army Starts Testing ‘Judge Dredd’ Weapon
Because the U.S. Military doesn’t kick enough ass!
The U.S. Army is set to start testing a computerized, high-tech projectile launcher that can take out bad guys hiding around corners and in caves or trenches, even if they’re out of the soldier’s line of sight.
Some experts call it the “Judge Dredd” gun, after the Sylvester Stallone movie. The Pentagon calls it the XM-25 Individual Air Burst Weapon, which uses a laser rangefinder to precisely measure the distance to a target, then primes a fuse on a timed grenade so that the projectile explodes exactly where it should.
“The way a soldier operates this is you basically find your target, then laze to it, which gives the range, then you get an adjusted aim point, adjust fire and pull the trigger,” deputy program manager Richard Audette told Army News Service. “Say you’ve lazed out to 543 meters … when you pull the trigger it arms the round and fires it 543 meters plus or minus a one-, two- or three-meter increment, then it explodes over the target.”
A squad trying to neutralize an enemy fighter wouldn’t have to wait until he showed himself — instead, they could just aim to a spot near him, then use the XM-25 to have a grenade explode directly there.
“For example, in Iraq we had many instances where there was a sniper firing from a rooftop and you have a squad trying to engage that target, but the soldiers couldn’t get to him with the weapons they had, so they’d call in the Air Force to drop a JDAM (joint direct attack munition),” said Audette. “We can take out the target at $25 per XM round as opposed to a $20,000 to $50,000 JDAM.”
With a range of 750 meters — nearly half a mile — the XM-25 would also be very effective in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters often hide behind rocks and in caves.
In addition to precision-timed grenades, the gun is also built to fire armor-piercing, door-breaching, anti-personnel and less-than-lethal rounds.
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