The Army’s ‘Punisher’ Airburst Gun Is Dead

Task and Purpose, Jared Keller

Security,

The Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General released a report in September 2016 urging the Army to cancel the program due to “two years of delays, increased program costs, and an unjustified fielding plan.”

After years of delays and cost increases, the Army has officially pulled the plug on the XM25 Counter-Defilade Target Engagement System, the 25mm shoulder-fired airburst weapon lovingly nicknamed ‘The Punisher,’ Stars and Stripes reports.

Originally touted as a “leap-ahead” enhancement to soldiers’ arsenals in Afghanistan, the XM25  semi-automatic weapon that uses a target acquisition and fire control system to identify targets, determine range, and program specially-designed, high-explosive ammunition to explode in proximity to enemies nearly 2000 feet away.

The program has been in limbo since May 2017, when the Army’s senior leadership canceled its contract with Orbital ATK after the defense firm “failed to deliver the 20 weapons as specified by the terms of the contract,” as service spokesman told Military.com at the time.

The termination of the contract came after Orbital ATK sued Hechler & Koch for more than $27 million the previous February over a breach of contract involving the weapons system, passing the blame for the missing prototypes on the German gunmaker and putting the XM25 contract — and, in turn, the program — in jeopardy

The Punisher was doomed well before that. The Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General released a report in September 2016 urging the Army to cancel the program due to “two years of delays, increased program costs, and an unjustified fielding plan,” per Military.com. Indeed, the OIG report for the system frequently malfunctioned during operational testing:

Part of the problem started Feb. 2, 2013, when the XM25 malfunctioned during its second round of operational testing in Afghanistan, inflicting minor injuries to a soldier, the audit maintains.