Army.mil reports …

“The XM25 brought the difference to whether they would stay there 15 to 20 minutes shooting (and) taking pot shots or the actual fight ended after using the XM25,” said Sgt. 1st Class Carlos Smith, Soldier Requirements Division, Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning, Ga. “That was due to the defilade capabilities of the XM25 to shoot beyond targets and behind targets.”

The XM25 allows Soldiers to engage defilade targets — those behind a barrier, protected from oncoming weapons fire. The XM25 measures the distance to the enemy’s protective barrier, and can then program the round to detonate a user-adjustable distance past that — allowing Soldiers to put an air-bursting round directly above the enemy’s head, inside their protected area.

…

Since then, hundreds of XM25 rounds have been fired in theater, though only 55 of those rounds were fired as part of combat, on nine different operational missions.

“We disrupted two insurgents on an OP (observation point) and we silenced two machine-gun positions — two PKM positions,” Conley said, describing some of the scenarios he witnessed in theater where the XM25 had been used. “We destroyed four ambush locations, where the survivors fled.”

I had to look up the word “defilade”. A defilade target means a target using a protective barrier or terrain to protect themselves from fire.

I sounds like the concept it working well. The Koreans were said to have deployed their K11 airburst weapon system in Afghanistan over a year ago, but we have heard nothing about the deployment since then.

[Hat Tip: The Register]

[ Many thanks to root and jdun1911 for emailing me the link. ]