ATK wins US Army XM25 contract

ATK has announced that it has received a $24 million contract modification to provide the US Army with additional ammunition, hardware, test and analysis support further user assessments of the XM25, Individual Semi-Automatic Airburst System (ISAAS), in a company statement issued 7 November 2011.

According to the company, the contract ‘will provide the funding for the continuing design, integration, production, and testing of full-up systems to ensure the weapon’s final design meets performance requirements and is production-ready prior to army-wide fielding’. ATK received the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract from the US Army’s Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier for the XM25 in March 2011.

ATK is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the XM25 programme, which began in 2010 when the US Army began a Forward Operational Assessment (FOA) of the XM25 with soldiers in Afghanistan to determine its capabilities through use in actual combat operations.

According to ATK, further weapon assessments have been requested by the army ‘based on the weapon’s initial success throughout the FOA’. The company said that information gathered during the ongoing operational assessment will ‘provide valuable user feedback that will ultimately support the EMD process’.

The ISAAS consists of a rifle that fires a 25mm airbursting round that is programmed by the weapon’s integrated target acquisition and fire control system to detonate directly above an intended target. The system allows soldiers to quickly and accurately engage targets by displaying an adjusted aim point based on range, environmental factors, and user inputs.

The weapon’s target acquisition and fire control integrates a thermal capability with direct-view optics, laser rangefinder, compass, fuze-setter, ballistic computer, laser pointer and illuminator. These capabilities enable the weapon’s use during day or night and in all weather conditions.