LW25 (25 mm)
Contents
Description
The 25 mm LW25 ("Light Weight" 25 mm) is an American autocannon currently exclusively equipped onto the M60 AMBT. A derivative of the 25 mm M242 autocannon, the LW25 acts as a lightweight weapon system for vehicle mounts in the same niche as weapon systems such as the .50 calibre M2 Browning.
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
The LW25 is a cupola-mounted autocannon on the M60 AMBT. Although it is considered a derivative of the 25 mm M242, the ballistic performance the two weapons have on the same calibre are completely different. The LW25 fires its projectiles rather slowly at 405 m/s, a muzzle velocity that makes the weapon akin to a grenade launcher. This makes the weapon rather inefficient against airborne targets, even helicopters unless they are flying low and in close-range.
However, the one ammunition available to the LW25 on the M60 AMBT, the default HEDP type, allows the weapon to be used rather well on soft target as the HEDP round gives a penetration rating of 36 mm that deal with armour. This is enough to deal with most enemy light tanks even in top rank battles.
Available ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEDP | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEDP | 405 | 0.14 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 26.88 | 62° | 69° | 73° | ||||
Comparison with analogues
Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.
Usage in battles
The 25 mm LW25 serves mostly as a backup role among the different weapon systems on the M60 AMBT. The LW25 fires HEDP rounds that have more armour-penetration compared to a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, but they are also fired at a lower muzzle velocity than the 12.7 mm. As such, it would be a poor weapon against a fast-moving enemy jet (although firing a tracer stream towards them could shake up their attack run), but the LW25 is a good fall back weapon should the M60 AMBT encounter a lightly-armoured vehicle such as light tanks or SPAA, or even a low-flying helicopter, that the HEDP could have good effect on.
Since the gun is on the roof of the tank's turret, the lower muzzle velocity of the 25 mm shells could also allow some higher angled shots to fire at enemy behind cover or terrain.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good against lightly armoured vehicles or helicopters
- One continuous 300-round belt so shooters do not need to worry about reloading
- Entire ammo belt has tracers, meaning one could just walk the 25 mm shells into the enemy or intimidate them by firing at their location.
- Low muzzle velocity means projectile drop could be sufficient to attack enemies behind low cover
- Mounted high on the M60 AMBT turret, which allows for an elevated firing perspective
Cons:
- Insufficient armour-piercing power for attacking most tanks from any angles, except possibly roof armour and weak points.
- Low muzzle velocity makes weapon rather poor for long-range engagements or against fast-moving vehicles.
- Low rate of fire
- Only a single ammo choice (HEDP) available
History
Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
- references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.
External links
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- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| USA tank cannons | |
|---|---|
| 20 mm | M139 |
| 25 mm | LW25 · M242 |
| 37 mm | M3 · M5 · M6 |
| 57 mm | M1 |
| 75 mm | M2 · M2 Howitzer · M3 · M6 · M1897A4 · XM274 |
| 76 mm | M1 · M7 · M32 · T185E1 |
| 90 mm | M3 · M3A1 · M36 · M41 · M54 · T15E1 · T15E2 · T54 · T208E9 |
| 105 mm | M4 · M68 · M68A1 · M68A1E8 · T5E1 · T5E2 · T140E2 · T140E3 · XM35 |
| 106 mm | M40A1C |
| 120 mm | M58 · M256 · T53 |
| 152 mm | M81 · M162 · XM150E5 |
| 155 mm | M185 · T7 |
| 165 mm | M135 |
| Foreign: | |
| 20 mm | Rh202 (Germany) |
| 57 mm | 6pdr OQF Mk.III (Britain) · ZIS-2 (USSR) |
| 105 mm | Sharir (Israel) |
| 120 mm | IMI MG251 (Israel) |
