Total # of U.S Troops Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan Wars – 5,464

Army Sending Precision Grenade Launcher to Afghanistan

ABERDEEN TEST CENTER, Md. — The Army is set to send its high-tech “counter defilade” weapon to the war zone in the next few months, the first real-world deployment for the much-anticipated XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon.

Officials announced May 5 that a group of Army Special Forces Soldiers will take the weapon with them to Afghanistan sometime this summer.

Afghanistan veterans who fired the weapon for the first time this week predicted it would be a “game changing” weapon, a gun that can engage Taliban insurgents using distant ridge-tops, thick mud walls and tree lines as cover.

While labeled a grenade launcher, the XM-25 is much more than that, Army officials say. It’s a precision direct, and indirect, fire weapon system that combines an array of sophisticated sensors, lasers and optics with a microchip-embedded 25mm high explosive round.

The enormous firepower advantage is obvious, they can drop the 25mm rounds directly into an enemy’s lap from up to 700 meters away. That precision firepower will come at a high price: It’s projected to run $25,000 per weapon.

The Army plans to spend $34 million on further development in 2011 with a production start slated for 2012, according to service budget documents. The service had planned to buy 12,500 XM-25s, but a final decision is awaiting a program review by senior Army officials.

Source Military.com

US Military Deaths in Iraq - 4,397

Afghanistan - 1,067

Total - 5,464

Iraqi and Afhanistan civilians more than one million deaths.

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