The main reason wolf and myself were feuding was he claimed that a soldier using a ZH05 could match the speed of follow up for a semi auto. That is not a realistic argument. Every time a single shot weapon has gone against a equal weapon that is repeater the repeater has the faster rate of fire.
Feeding? I didn't realised you were taking it so personally
However, I must object to your summation of you original point.
What I said was:
I suppose, for the primary mission of the smart grenade launcher - to take out enemies in hard cover with perfectly timed air bursting grenades, a well trained soldier could almost engage multiple targets as fast with the bolt action as he could with a semi-auto.
That bolded qualifying remark makes a hell of a difference to both the nature of my claim, and also the nature of the weapons we are talking about.
A smart grenade launcher is not a spray and pray weapon. If your first shot missed, then that is almost certainly because the shooter misjudged the distance he programmed the grenade to airburst at.
In that case, shooting off a second grenade as fast as you could have pulled the trigger would not have made any difference but waste two grenade rounds instead of one.
You will need a few seconds to determine what went wrong the first time, and then either adjust the original aim point, or just start from scratch if that's easier/quicker.
My point is, that a well trained soldier could reload the ZH05 in that time relying almost entirely on muscle memory, while he concentrates to correct the aiming, and as such, in a realistic scenario, the soldier using the ZH05 should be able to get a second, adjusted shot off nearly as fast as someone using a semi-auto smart grenade launcher who also had to recalculate and readjust.
A corrective action for a semiautomatic XM25 would be to use the first miss and then adjust like a sniper. For the ZH05 it would mean starting back to zero.
Nope, a sniper just need to point and shoot. He doesn't need to programme where his bullet is supposed to air burst.
For someone using a smart grenade launcher, he needs a few seconds to recalibrate his targeting computer to ensure it sets the fuse correctly.
And as I have already pointed out, someone using a ZH05 does not need to take the weapon from the shoulder to reload, he could do it easier than regular soldiers could change mags while keeping their weapons shouldered and aimed. Indeed, someone using the ZH05 should be using the time it takes to reload to reprogramme his targeting computer.
And nope, they do not need to be lying prone and have the rounds laid out in front of them to use my suggested method or one similar to that they developed from playing around with the weapon, although I think you might be forgetting we are talking about smart grenade launchers a little if you are imagining scenarios where soldiers are charging forwards and popping off grenades from the hip.
I have never seen or even heard of someone shooting the XM25 on the move, since that would make all the effort that has gone into giving them precisely controllable detonation points a rather useless exercise.
If you want to do that, its better to use a hand held semi-auto or even fully automatic conventional grenade launcher, which the PLA also has operationally deployed.
In my view, the smart grenade launcher is going to have an effect on squad based infantry combat much like introducing tanks to the static trench warfare of WWI.
Now, rather than being stuck in a prolonged pinging contest, or get cut to ribbons trying to charge a well defended enemy position, infantry squads can call up a buddy with the smart grenade launcher to take out the enemy holed up behind cover keeping your guys pinned, so they can rapidly advance to newer positions and do it all over again.
Just like the introduction of the tank, the key is to use them to break open enemy defensive positions quickly and then rapidly advance to take said position and get the enemy on the back foot before he could regroup to counter your break through.
With these things on the battlefield, finding yourself a nice solid piece of cover and setting up camp is going to be a hell of a less health option.
That makes shoot and scoot manoeuvring combat doctrines more important in a near-pear infantry brawl, where the enemy are liable to be shooting their own smart grenades right back at you as soon as he spots a nice juicy target.
I think that is a signifiant part in the PLA wanting a bolt action grenade launcher, since shoot and scoot is actively encouraged by the weapon itself, and the operator is going to be a great deal less likely to be tempted to stay in one place for longer than is healthy popping off round after round and making himself a priority target for enemy smart grenade launchers.
The PLA squad is expecting to be moving most of the time from cover to cover, rather than holed up behind one particularly choice piece of cover for the whole battle.
That is why they want to keep the weight down, and also why retaining the assault rifle was a critical factor.
Another think you are discounting is the fact that because the ZH05 is so light, and still retains the assault rifle, the PLA can field two in a squad, one for each fire team.
At best, a squad of US troopers will only get one XM25 because of the weight, and also the loss of a rifleman for every XM25 deployed.
One-on-one, the XM25 has the edge over the ZH05 in many scenarios. However, in a realistic operational scenario, where its two ZH05 against one XM25, it's hard to think of any scenarios where the XM25 comes out on top.
I think that is a key doctrine difference between the PLA and most western armies.
The PLA always expects to be fighting someone at least as well trained and equipped as themselves, if not having better gear. OTOH, western armies typically train to beat the crap out of a hopelessly outmatched foe for minimal losses, a trend that was developed in the decade and a half of near constant warfare against such rag-tag foes in the middle east and elsewhere.
The Chinese value effect, whereas the wars western armies have been fighting recently, and their highly casualty averse leaders and general public forces western armies to put efficiently above all else.
You are think of using smart grenades like how western armies are training to use them - to find a nice, safe bit of cover, where the enemy has almost no chance to hit you, and then just pick them off at your leisure.
I'm sure that would work wonders in Iraq or Afghanistan, but won't work nearly so well if the enemy also got smart grenade launchers to shoot back with.
That is why the PLA is fielding the LG5, that is their XM25 counter. The LG5 is the one supposed to be tucked in nice and safe in cover away from harm, since they have the range advantage that allows them to hit XM25 users well beyond the range of the XM25.
The ZH05 is for more close and personal encounters, which is why they were more keen to keep the automatic rifle component and weight down to a minimum.
The expectation of and preference for fast, fluid combat is probably also a big factor in the PLA's lack of enthusiasm in snipers, and prefer DMR instead - they expect the front lines to be be so fluid and fast shifting as to make snipers a great deal less effective. By the time a sniper has picked out a good hide and set up shop, the battle would have moved so much as to either be out of range, or so close as to force him to relocate, but that's another topic.
To sum up, the general combat doctrinal differences between the PLA and western armies led to the design of very different next gen smart grenade weapons for very different intended combat styles.
The XM25 is just a grenade launcher. The soldier using it will only be interested in shooting grenades. He is going to be doing that in good cover, and likely to stay in that nice bit of cover for most, if not the entire length of an engagement.
The ZH05 is an assault rifle with smart grenade launcher capability.
The soldier using that is still a rifleman. He and the rest of his squad intends to use their rifles first and most, only turning to the smart grenade launcher to clear enemy from good cover so they can advance and keep moving.
