The XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon (ACSW) was a developmental 25 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher with programmable

airburst An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

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 kill or suppress enemy combatants out to 2,000 meters (2,187 yd), and destroy lightly

armored vehicle Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighti ...

watercraft A watercraft or waterborne vessel is any vehicle designed for travel across or through water bodies, such as a boat, ship, hovercraft, submersible or submarine. Types Historically, watercraft have been divided into two main categories. *Raf ...

, and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s at 1,000 meters (1,094 yd). The project was canceled in 2007.

Overview

The system was under development by

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

for the U.S. Army

Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command The United States Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), and its subordinate Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC),

(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 An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

style ammunition, including HE, and

HEAT In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

at a cyclic rate of 260 rounds per minute and has an effective range up to 2 kilometers. The primary feature of the XM307 is its attenuated

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, for according to Newton's third law the force requ ...

system. The weapon controls recoil to a degree that a large

tripod A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...

and heavy

sandbag A sandbag or dirtbag is a bag or sack made of Hessian (cloth), hessian (burlap), polypropylene or other sturdy materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification in trenches and bunke ...

s are not required to effectively employ this weapon. Because of its reduced recoil impulse and light weight, other mounting options are possible, such as small unmanned vehicles and aircraft. The XM307's airburst rounds make it much easier to bypass walls protecting enemies that could cause

collateral damage "Collateral damage" is a term for any incidental and undesired death, injury or other damage inflicted, especially on civilians, as the result of an activity. Originally coined to describe military operations, it is now also used in non-milit ...

if fired upon directly. Operators do not have to shoot through the wall, just through an opening or over the top to kill the people behind the cover, leaving the structure of the building intact. An additional feature of the XM307 is that it can be converted into the

XM312 The XM312 is a heavy machine gun derived from the XM307 25 mm autocannon and chambered for the .50 BMG cartridge. It was designed in response to a request by the U.S. military for a replacement for the aging M2 Browning heavy machine gun, a ...

, a 12.7 mm (.50)-caliber version for

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

and light anti-armor support in under two minutes (1 minute, 42 seconds). 25mm TP ACSW projectile

Specifications

System *''Weight'': 50 lb (22.5 kg) (gun, mount, and fire control) *''Fire Control'': full solution, day/night *''Portability'': two-man portable and vehicle mountable *''Stability'': up to 18 inch (457 mm) tripod height *''Environmental'': operationally insensitive to conditions Gun *''Dimensions'': 9.9 W × 7.2 H × 52.3 L max inches (43.3 L charged) / 251 mm × 183 mm × 1328 mm (1100 mm charged) *''Rate of Fire'': 250 rounds per minute, automatic *''Dispersion'': less than 1.5 mils, one sigma radius *''Range'': lethal and suppressive out to 2,000 m *''Ammunition'': high-explosive airbursting, armor-piercing, and training ammunition (HE, AP, TP, TP-S) *''Feed System'': weapon-mountable ammunition can (left feed)

Variants

A Remotely Operated Variant (ROV) for the Future Combat Systems family of vehicles is also under development. The weapon system, which would be mounted on the vehicle, will be remotely operated from within the vehicle.

Program status

In May 2004, the development phase was funded through FY 2007. In December 2005 funding was granted for a

remote-control vehicle A remote-control vehicle, is defined as any vehicle that is teleoperated by a means that does not restrict its motion with an origin external to the device. This is often a radio-control device, a cable between the controller and the vehicle, ...

variant. However, in 2007 the project was canceled due to the low rate of fire of the prototypes.

References

External links