Powered By

JAYTWO77

Monday, February 25, 2008

XM307 ACSW Advanced Crew-Served Weapon / automatic grenade launcher


The XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon (ACSW) is a developmental 25 mm belt-fed Grenade Machine Gun with smart shell capability. It is the result of the OCSW or Objective Crew Served Weapon project. It is lightweight and designed to be two-man portable, as well as vehicle mounted. The XM307 can incapacitate or suppress enemy soldiers out to 2000 m or 2200 yards, and destroy lightly armored vehicles, watercraft, and helicopters at 1000 m or 1100 yards. There is currently no projected IOC for the XM307 and it is unlikely it will ever enter service with the U.S. Military.

The system is under development by General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products for the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM). As a part of the Small Arms Master Plan (SAMP) program, it is intended to either replace or supplement the Mk19 automatic grenade launcher and the M2 heavy machine gun. It fires 25 mm point-detonating and air burst style ammunition, including HE, HEAT, and thermobaric grenades at a cyclic rate of 260 rounds per minute and has an effective range up to 2 kilometers.

The primary advantage of the XM307 is its attenuated recoil system. The weapon controls recoil to a degree that a large tripod and heavy sandbags are not required to effectively employ this weapon. Because of this reduced recoil impulse and light weight, other mounting options are also possible such as small unmanned vehicles and aircraft. Its airburst rounds also make it much easier to hit enemies behind walls that could cause collateral damage if thoroughly shot through. They do not have to shoot through the wall, just through a window or over the top and kill the people behind the cover, leaving the structure of the building intact. Also, in under 2 minutes, it can be converted into the XM312, a .50 cal version for infantry and light anti-armor support.

XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon is gas operated, rotating bolt locked weapon that uses differential recoil system for decreased peak recoil. XM307 is belt fed weapon that fires from open bolt. The differential recoil system means that barrel and bolt group are allowed to recoil within the receiver casing together, against the recoil springs. When weapon is cocked for first shot, bolt is locked open and the entire barrel/bolt group is carried rearwards and also locked there. Upon the pull of the trigger both barrel group and the bolt inside it are released, and the bolt loads the round and locks it in chamber while barrel still moves forward; firing pin is then released immediately, and the recoil from the discharge first has to arrest the forward movement of the barrel group, and then throws it backward with less force than it would in the traditional system with fixed barrel. The belt feed and bolt cycling are operated by conventional gas action. The fire control unit includes zoomable day and night vision channels that output the sight picture to the small display at the rear of the sight. Integral laser range-finder allows for precise range measurement, necessary for automatic point of aim correction and for programming of the air-bursting fuzes. XM307 weapon is fitted with dual, ergonomically shaped spade grips with triggers and fire and sight control buttons. Additional buttons are located at the rear of the sight / fire control unit, below the eyepiece. In standard applications, XM307 can be used either on lightweight infantry tripod, or on vehicle mounts, manually or remotely controlled. For vehicular applications, GDATP will develop the dual feed option, which will allow to select the type of ammunition (anti-personnel HEAB or armour-piercing) at the instant before firing.

No comments: