Textron Systems displayed a model of its XM204 top-attack anti-armour munition at the Eurosatory 2024 defence exhibition, held in Paris from 17-21 June, having secured the go-ahead to move into full-rate production with the weapon just a few weeks before the show.
The company received a US Army contract worth up to USD 354 million (EUR 329.5 million) to produce the weapon on 3 August 2022 and has since been conducting a series of tests to ensure the system is ‘soldier-proof’ and ready to deploy. John Pirog, director of global military sales and strategy for Textron’s Weapon & Sensor Systems business, told ESD at Eurosatory 2024 on 19 June that the weapon will probably be in the hands of the US Army this winter.
Textron describes the XM204 as a “hand-emplaced anti-vehicle system designed to support terrain-shaping operations”. Weighing around 38 kg, each XM204 would typically be carried into position by a two-person team. Once set in place a single XM204, which carries four submunitions, can defend an area roughly the size of a US football pitch, Pirog told ESD.
The XM204 uses three different sensors to find its target. Firstly, acoustic and seismic sensors begin tracking a potential target vehicle at a range of around 1,000 m, with the weapon’s onboard computer then determining whether that vehicle is the kind of heavy-armour target for which the system is optimised. It if is, the XM204’s onboard radar will track the speed of the target and a submunition will be launched if the target enters the XM204’s 50 m strike radius.
The XM204’s top-attack submunitions, which operate in the same way as those used in Textron’s air-launched CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon, use an infrared (IR) sensor to detect their target and then detonate to direct an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) down onto the target. Pirog noted that the spin rate of the submunitions gives the IR sensor many passes per second over the target – enough to discriminate the optimum point on the vehicle to strike.
Once emplaced, an XM204 can be set to be active for four hours, 48 hours or 15 days, after which the weapon self-destructs. Pirog conceded that this means that the emplacement of XM204s must be done in co-ordination with a sound tactical plan since, once set, the weapon cannot be deactivated.
Pirog noted, however, that the XM204 is in effect a “bridging” system on the path to Textron’s follow-on XM250 anti-vehicle top-attack munition. The XM250, which is currently at the prototype stage, will use the same principle as the XM204 but has improved lethality, can be remote controlled and can be disarmed and redeployed if not initiated.
For now, however, Pirog said the XM204 offers a system that can cover a much larger area with fewer units than traditional anti-tank mines, which must be deployed in significant numbers to be effective, given that they require an enemy armoured vehicle to drive over them to be initiated.
