The Precision Grenadier System has turned into being less about an individual launcher and more of a stacked whole of weapon, fire control, and programmable ammunition able to traverse beyond legacy 40mm systems and provide a believable counter-drone capability. That is why a new caliber or a new receiver silhouette was not the most interesting fact on the floor of SHOT Show but the Barrett just quietly moved to two parallel tracks simultaneously one a house-made 30mm concept, the other an actual manufacturing opportunity of the 25mm contender offer by Northrop Grumman.
PGS is a magazine-fed, semi-autofired shoulder-fired grenade launcher that is aimed at remedying the issues that the Army M203 and M320 cannot accurately ensure when it comes to combating targets behind cover and those small targets that fly through the air. The combination of a modern fire-control optic and rounds that can be programmed or fuzed to blow themselves up at the appropriate moment during flight is the center of gravity of the program, instead of the use of area effects and chance.
Northup Grumman came with baggage and teachings to this point. Its business heritage also involved Orbital ATK, one of the key providers of the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement system which the Army canceled following a series of turbulent technical and program issues. Northup has clarified that XM25 was a starting point of its present work, but purported to have made significant modifications to reliability, weight, and the ammunition package. Northup Rylan Harris of Northup in a press conference said, under the PGS side of the matter, that the first baseline would be of the Orbital ATK XM25 design, and that a similarity in programmable airburst ammunition was useful to provide maturity.
The Northrop system was demonstrated at SHOT Show featuring a five-round magazine and the NGSW-FC (Next Generation Squad Weapon Fire Control) sighting system family which already became known to soldiers due to the overall modernization of the small arms in the Army. The 25mm ammunition prototypically linked to this strategy has been rationalized into four practical buckets: a programmable high explosive airburst round, a proximity-fuzed anti-drone round, a close-quarters buckshot-like CQB round, and a training round that is functionally equivalent. The stress is instructive: PGS is being molded to repeatable, electronically aided extended strike, and a short-range response to fast and nearby menaces.
The position of Barrett is on the intersection of such priorities. The company officials assured that Barrett will present its own design and will also endorse the entry of Northup- hedging two calibers and two schools of thought. The Barrett mock-up at SHOT featured a unique profile of its receiver, and a long-recoil action; it was reported to have 30mm ammunition, 5-round magazine, an overall length of 34 inches, and a 12-inch barrel. One of the practical maintenance notes was made; the design incorporates a single recoil spring below the barrel, which can be pulled forward of the receiver to disassemble, which is an indication that the design considers field maintenance, and not just appearance on the booth floor.
It is also that 30mm lane where greater Army industry momentum has been developing. Several ideas were raised up by the xTech Soldier Lethality initiative, and Army efforts since then have ensured that the 30mm remains squarely in the mix of ideas as the requirements move out to higher flatter shots and manageable recoil over longer ranges. Meanwhile the 30mm program of FN has progressed in accordance with a $2 million Prototype Project Opportunity Notice (PPON) contract to reduce risks and further the program. To say the least, PGS is not coming to the point of converging to one self-evident caliber but rather it is compelling a tradeoff between projectile size, soldier load, recoil control, and the extent to which the fire-control system can counteract it.
The lesson that is the most enduring, however, of the XM25 period is that the weapon, in itself, is never a product. PGS is a system-of-systems bet and the two-track posture of Barrett indicates that fact: one way, which leads to more of an 30mm effects package with its own ammunition family, and another which links the manufacturing muscle of Barrett with the greater nimbleness of Northrop with its 25mm offering and its programmable and proximity-fuzed rounds.
