Army Sources 50mm Cannon for Counter-Drone Defense; Live-Fire Test Set for XM913 Bushmaster
The pivot from 25mm to 50mm reflects a hard lesson from Ukraine and the Iran conflict: dense cannon networks are now the binding constraint on air-defense, not missile inventory. A 50mm cannon firing 200 rounds per minute at programmable airburst ammunition is cheaper than cycling manned fighters ($4M per sortie) or burning $4M air-defense missiles on $20K drones — and Ukraine's success with mobile cannon belts proves the tactic works. The XM30 is years from production, but the Army's urgency on ammunition integration suggests it will not wait for the full vehicle to field the 50mm solution; expect retrofit kits for existing Bradley variants within 18 months if the test validates the HEAB-T fuze.
The Army is shifting from 25mm to 50mm cannon for point-defense against drones after five months of Iran conflict exposed armored vehicles to mass UAV attacks and Ukraine demonstrated that dense cannon belts outperform missiles on cost per kill.
The XM913 paired with airburst ammunition (XM1204 HEAB-T) cuts the round count needed to defeat a target by an order of magnitude compared to existing 25mm HE rounds — a precision problem the Army must solve before the XM30 enters service. Contractors have until August 31 to bid; the live-fire test will determine whether the Bushmaster variant becomes the primary counter-UAS weapon on the next-generation infantry fighting vehicle. Watch the September-October 2026 test results and whether the Army accelerates XM30 prototype fielding to address the drone-armor gap that has driven Bradley variants off Ukrainian front lines.
Does the 50mm airburst round achieve the Army's claimed order-of-magnitude reduction in round count, or does the live-fire test expose fuze reliability issues that delay integration into the XM30?
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