#CounterDefilade

In May of this year, I got the rare opportunity to travel to Heckler & Koch’s headquarters in Ashburn, VA, to take a look at some of the experimental and prototype firearms they have located there in their famous “Grey Room”. It wouldn’t be worth as much for me to just tell you about it and to snap a few foggy cell phone pictures, though, so I brought along Othais of C&Rsenal to help me take high resolution light box photos of these unique and rare firearms.

The US Army’s “Punisher” XM25 Counter-Defilade Target Engagement (CTDE) weapon program is in danger, says a report released earlier this week by the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office. The program has been riddled with delays and cost spirals, as well as three accidents in 2013, but beyond that the Army has failed to outline a plan for procurement and basic issuance of the weapon, putting the program in jeopardy. From the (heavily redacted) report:

The US Army’s XM25 “Punisher” airburst programmable infantry grenade launcher  is being prepared for acceptance testing, but a major component, and a major source of criticism, has received an overhaul from the versions tested in Afghanistan. Military.com’s KitUp! reports on the new optic and fire control system being displayed at the Association of the US Army 2015 conference:

The US Army is soon to conduct qualification and acceptance testing for the radical XM25 Counter-Defilate Target Engagement System, informally dubbed “the Punisher” during operational trials in Afghanistan.  DefenseNews reports: