VBCI Nexter is ready for 25mm "airburst".

Ammunition "airburst", timed to go off after a given flight time, achieves targets sheltered behind obstacles without touching them directly. Direct result of the Afghan adventure, Nexter Munitions is currently completing the development of the shell 25mm airburst version for the VBCI. Scenario repeatedly met by operational is known: a group of insurgents well hidden behind the wall of a compound, harassing ISAF troops. A distance of 1000m, it takes thirty to forty shells 25mm mincemeat a mud wall 80cm thick to ultimately achieve the targets. Airburst ammunition exploding with vertical insurgents, the number of strokes required is reduced by 90%: an optimal shooting three or four meters above the wall after telemetered target and voila. Airburst ammunition would be 30-40% more expensive than the simple explosive, but only reduced the number of strokes needed to make a quick cost accounting standpoint ... Note that the turret VBCI has two stores: the first for shells and second arrows for explosives. The airburst also having the ability to explode on impact, its use would combine the three possible effects turret ...

After an initial study commissioned by the DGA in 2005, the ammunition arrives today to a degree of industrial maturity. The feasibility has been demonstrated, including several hundred shots last year against distant targets from 700 to 1200m. Remains to industrialize the product.

The difficulty of an automatic weapon in medium caliber ammunition is set at a high rate: 400 rounds per minute. The time fuze shells of each effect must be programmed in a fraction of a second before the shot and then explode after a time of flight. This programming is done by induction, with an integrated system in which the weapon's economy in direct contact with the ammunition. The fire must also be adapted to manage this program. Nexter plans integrating the airburst function in fire control VBCI 2014. The industry also has another PEA (upstream study program) with the DGA to increase the effectiveness of the warhead end of the shell, by mastering the size of the fragments and their dispersal. It should run on PEA 2012-2013 and lead to further industrialization. The ball is in the camp of the DGA before the insurgents in ...