M249 light machine gun – Wikipedia

light machine gun
The M249 light machine gun ( LMG ), besides known as the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon ( SAW ), which continues to be the manufacturer ‘s appointment, [ 3 ] and formally written as Light Machine Gun, 5.56 mm, M249, is the american english adaptation of the belgian FN Minimi, a light machine gun manufactured by the belgian company FN Herstal ( FN ). The M249 is manufactured in the United States by the auxiliary FN Manufacturing LLC, a company in Columbia, South Carolina, and is widely used in the U.S. Armed Forces. The weapon was introduced in 1984 after being judged most effective ( compared to a total of campaigner weapons ) to address the lack of automatic firepower in humble units. The M249 provides infantry squads with a high rate of machine gun fire, combined with the accuracy and portability of a plunder. The M249 is accelerator function and air-cooled, it has a quick-change barrel ( allowing the artilleryman to quickly replace an overheat or jam barrel ), a fold bipod attached to the front of the gunman ( an M192 LGM tripod besides being available ). The SAW can be fed from both linked ammunition and STANAG magazines ( such as those used in the M16 and M4 ), allowing the SAW operator to use them as a source of ammunition in case they run out of belts. The STANAG magazines should only be used in emergencies, however, due to their high gear malfunction rate.

M249s have seen action in major conflicts involving the United States since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. Due to the firearm ‘s weight and age, the United States Marine Corps began fielding the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, with plans to ( partially ) replace the M249 in USMC overhaul in the future. [ 4 ]

etymology [edit ]

The M249 is much referred to as a “ Squad Automatic Weapon “ ( SAW ). [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

Development [edit ]

background [edit ]

In 1965, the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps ‘ chief machine guns were the M2 Browning and M60. The M2 was a large-caliber heavy car accelerator, normally mounted on vehicles or in cook emplacements. [ 7 ] The M60 was a more mobile general-purpose machine gunman, intended to be carried by troops to provide heavy automatic fire. [ 8 ] Both firearms were identical clayey and normally required a crew of at least two in order to operate efficiently. [ 9 ] The Browning automatic rifle ( BAR ), the united states army ‘s main individual machine grease-gun since its introduction in World War I, was phased out in 1957 with the presentation of the M14 rifle ( which had a amply automatic pistol modality ). [ 10 ] “ Designated riflemen ” in every team were ordered to use their weapons on the amply automatic set, while other troops were required to use their rifle ‘s semi-automatic manner on most occasions to increase accuracy and conserve ammunition. [ 11 ] Because the M14 and M16 rifles had not been designed with prolong automatic pistol fire in judgment, they much overheated or jammed. [ 11 ] The 20-round and 30-round magazines of these weapons limited their nourish automatic rifle effectiveness when compared to belt-fed weapons. [ 7 ] The Army decided that an individual machine gun, lighter than the M60, but with more firepower than the M16, would be advantageous ; troops would nobelium long have to rely on rifles for automatic fire. [ 2 ] Through the 1960s, the initiation of a car artillery into the infantry squad was examined in versatile studies. [ 12 ] While there was a brief flirt with the concept of a flechette – or dart-firing Universal Machine Gun during one study, most unaccented machine gun experiments concentrated on the Stoner 63 ignite machine gun, a modular weapon that could be easily modified for unlike purposes. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] The Stoner 63 LMG saw fight for a brief period in Vietnam with the Marine Corps, and late on a wide scale with the U.S. Navy SEALs. [ 14 ] In 1968, the Army Small Arms Program developed plans for a newly 5.56 millimeter bore LMG, though no funds were allocated ( 5.56 millimeter ammunition was viewed as underpowered by many in the arm forces ). Studies of improved 5.56 millimeter ammunition, with better performance characteristics, began. [ 15 ] The earliest address to studies of early bore cartridges for the LMG did not appear until 1969. [ 16 ] In July 1970, the U.S. Army finally approved development of an LMG, with no specify bore. At this time, the terminology “ Squad Automatic Weapon ” ( SAW ) was introduced. [ 12 ] Actual design of option cartridges for the LMG did not begin until July 1971. A calendar month late, Frankford Arsenal decided on two cartridge designs for the new LMG : a 6 millimeter cartridge and a new 5.56 mm magazine with a much larger subject. [ 17 ] Neither design was finalized by March 1972, when the Army published the specifications document for the planned SAW. [ 18 ] The 6 millimeter magazine design was finally approved in May that class. [ 19 ] Prior to July 1972, SAW exploitation contracts were awarded to Maremont, Philco Ford, and the Rodman Laboratory at Rock Island Arsenal. These companies produced designs with Army designations XM233, XM234 and XM235 respectively – X denoting “ experimental ”. Designs were required to have a weight of less than 9.07 kilogram ( 20 pound ) including 200 rounds of ammunition, and a range of at least 800 meters ( 2,600 foot ). [ 20 ] [ 21 ]

Trials [edit ]

[22] (note the difference) initial Belgian-designed Minimi prototype delivered to the U.S. Infantry Board for evaluation, before it received its XM249 designation ( note the deviation ) When the fourth dimension came for developmental and operational examination of the SAW candidates, three 5.56 millimeter candidate weapons were included with the 6 millimeter candidates : the M16 HBAR, a heavy-barrel version of the M16 designed for elongated open fire ; the Fabrique Nationale de Herstal ( FN ) Minimi ; and the HK 23A1. The initial turn of tests ended in December 1974. [ 20 ] In February 1976, the Minimi and Rodman XM235 SAW were selected for far development. At this time, opinions of the 6 mm magazine were beginning to sour due to the logistic implications of providing yet another ammunition type to the infantry. [ 23 ] In June, it was requested that the SAW specifications document be revised to emphasize standard 5.56 millimeter ammunition. In October, the request revisions were approved, and bids were solicited for the conversion of the Rodman XM235 to 5.56 millimeter. production of the born-again XM235 was awarded to Ford Aerospace, and its appellation was changed to XM248. [ 24 ] A new M16 HBAR version, the XM106, was developed in 1978, and soon after, Heckler & Koch lobbied to include a 5.56 millimeter conversion of its HK 21A1 ( rather of the standard 7.62 millimeter NATO ammunition it was built for ) in future SAW quiz. The latter model was designated the XM262. At this time, the Minimi received the designation XM249. [ 25 ] Testing of the four candidates resumed in April 1979. [ 26 ] In May 1980, the FN XM249 was selected as the best choice for future development on the grounds of performance and cost, while the HK XM262 reportedly came a close irregular. [ 26 ] In September, FN was awarded a “ maturity phase ” shrink for far exploitation of the XM249, [ 27 ] and test of the new weapon began in June 1981. [ 28 ] The official adoption took place in February 1982. [ 29 ] [ 30 ]

Service [edit ]

An early model of the M249 The modern grease-gun entered U.S. Army serve as the M249 squad automatic rifle weapon in 1984, and was adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps a year late. The U.S. production exemplar has a unlike butt joint from that of the even Minimi. [ 31 ] It is manufactured in the FN factory in Columbia, South Carolina. [ 32 ] Although found to be reliable and accurate, the M249 was considered to present unacceptable hazards in the imprint of an expose hot barrel and sharp edges. There were complaints that the front man sight required special allowance tools. On August 23, 1985, then- U.S. Under Secretary of the Army James R. Ambrose suspended M249 product pending the exploitation of the product improvement program ( PIP ) intended to fix these problems. [ 33 ] Congress deleted funds for the M249 from the Fiscal class 1986 refutation budget, then retroactively set aside the platform ‘s anterior year ‘s funds from the M249 course of study for other purposes, including retirement and pay raises. Over 1,100 M249s already issued were to remain in use, but be retrofitted with the PIP kit out when it became available. Over 7,000 remaining M249s were to stay in storage at depots until corrective changes could be made. The PIP kit out was finally developed and implemented, and production of the M249 resumed. [ 31 ] In 1994 the M249 team automatic rifle weapon was re-designated the M249 light car gun. [ 34 ]

design details [edit ]

A U.S. Marine firing an M249 from an M122A1 tripod at a discipline range in November 2003 The M249 is a belt-fed light machine gun. [ 2 ] It fires the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge, normally a combination of one M856 tracer and four M855 ball cartridges fed from M27 linked belts. Belts are typically held in a hard plastic or delicate poll box attached to the bottom of the weapon. [ 2 ] The M249 can besides fire rifle grenades. It fires from an open run off and is flatulence operated. When the trip is pulled, the bolt and bolt carrier move forth under the might of the recoil bounce. A magazine is stripped from the belt, chambered, and discharged, sending a bullet down the have a bun in the oven. Expanding propellant gases are diverted through a hole in the barrel into a bedroom. This press moves a piston providing the energy to extract and eject the spend casing arsenic well as promote the belt and compress the flinch give, frankincense preparing for subsequent shots. At 1,041 millimeter ( 41 in ) long and 7.5 kilogram ( 17 pound ) in weight ( 10 kilogram ( 22 pound ) including a 200-round belt and credit card ammunition box ), the M249 is a cumbersome weapon. [ 32 ] The M249 ’ s air-cool barrel is equipped with a mechanism to remove and replace the barrel assembly with a spare, this makes it easy for the operator to easily change the barrel on the field when it gets excessively hot during extensive amounts of fire. The barrel has a rifling twist rate of one turn in 180 millimeter ( 7 in ). [ 32 ] A fold bipod with adjustable legs is attached near the front of the weapon, though there are provisions for hard-mounting to a M192 Lightweight Ground Mount tripod or vehicle mount. The M249 ’ s original gas regulator featured two different natural gas port sizes, normal and adverse. The adverse plant increases the cyclic rate of displace from 700–850 rounds per moment to 950–1,150 rounds per hour and is used only in extreme environmental conditions or when heavy foul is deliver in the weapon ‘s gas tube. The two-position gas regulator was discarded as partially of a intersection improvement program, which made the M249 ’ sulfur that received the product improvement kit can no longer fire at higher cyclic rate. [ 2 ] The sustain pace of fire, the rate at which the artilleryman can fire endlessly without overheating, is around 100 rounds per minute. Whilst the rapid rate of fire is around 200 rounds per minute. [ 36 ] [ 37 ]

operational history [edit ]

The different rounds that can be successfully loaded into the M249 SAW The M249 LMG entered serve in 1984 as the M249 SAW. initial reactions to the gunman were desegregate : it fulfilled the light machine gunman function well when fired from the earth, but was not as effective when fired from the shoulder or hip. [ 40 ] It was praised for its extreme lastingness and massive firepower, though a number of areas for improvement were highlighted : the blank firing attachment fitted ailing, the bipod was identical decrepit and broke easily, the sling attachment was awkward, and there were many slots and gaps that accumulated crap. [ 41 ] Some claimed that the heavy-barrelled version of the M16 rifle was a more effective light machine gunman. [ 42 ] [ 43 ] The M249 SAW was not used heavily before the 1991 Gulf War, though it has been used in every major U.S. conflict since. american personnel in Somalia in 1993, Bosnia in 1994, Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq since 2003 have been issued M249s. Surplus weapons were donated to Bolivia, Colombia and Tunisia. [ 44 ] tactically, SAWs are either carried with a maneuver unit and fired while hand-held, or positioned to remain stationary and provide covering arouse for other units. [ 9 ] Upon introduction, the basic load of ammunition was 600 rounds, carried in three 200-round boxes. [ 45 ] These boxes were carried in soft pouches named Case, Small Arms, Ammunition, 200-Round Magazine. [ 46 ] The mod load of ammunition carried for the weapon is 1,000 rounds in five 200-round belts, although up to 500 extra rounds generally gets loaded into 100-round voiced pouches. [ 1 ]

irani Gulf War [edit ]

A issue of 929 M249 SAWs was issued to personnel from the U.S. Army and Marine Corps during the Persian Gulf War. Although exposure to combat was barely, M249 gunners who were involved in fighting chiefly used their weapons to provide binding fire for friendly maneuvering troops from fixed positions, quite than maneuvering with them. [ 47 ] There were many complaints about the weapons clogging up with sand after prolonged consumption in the defect environment. [ 48 ]

War in Afghanistan [edit ]

The standard team automatic rifle weapon in Afghanistan is the M249 with PIP kit, which serves alongside its heavier counterpart, the M240 machine gunman. Most M249s were given a collapsible buttstock immediately prior to the invasion to reduce its length and make the weapons more hardheaded for parachuting and close-quarters combat. [ 49 ] particular Operations troops typically favor the short Para adaptation of the weapon, which weighs much less. [ 1 ] A report entitled Lessons Learned in Afghanistan was released by Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Dean and SFC Sam Newland of the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center in 2002. They found that 54 % of SAW gunners had problems maintaining their weapons, and 30 % reported that the gun rusted easily. Soldiers reported ammunition boxes rattling and falling off. 80 % percentage of soldiers surveyed were pleased with the weapon ‘s accuracy and deadliness, so far only 64 % claimed they were “ confident in their weapon ”. Weapons clogging up with sandpaper in the defect seems to be the main complaint. [ 50 ]

Iraq War [edit ]

The PIP and Para versions of the M249 have been used in the Iraq war since the invasion. By 2004, many M249s had been in serve for about 20 years and were becoming increasingly undependable. Soldiers were requesting replacements and new features, and there are reports of soldiers holding their weapons together with duct videotape. [ 48 ] The deadliness of the 5.56 millimeter ammunition has been called into doubt by reports of enemy soldiers still firing after being hit multiple times. [ 51 ] As in previous conflicts, the arenaceous environment causes the M249s and other weapons to clog up and jamming if they are not cleaned frequently. [ 48 ] Operation Iraqi Freedom PEO Soldier Lessons Learned, a report on the operation of weapons in the Iraq War, was published by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Smith of the U.S. Army on May 15, 2003. Smith spoke positively of the M249, claiming that it “ provided the necessity firepower at the squad charge as intended ”. He praised the SPW form, noting that its “ short barrel and forward pistol fascinate allowed for identical effective consumption of the SAW in urban terrain ”. At the National Defense Industrial Association in 2007, Lieutenant Colonel Al Kelly of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry gave a presentation describing the M249 as having “ full rate, excellent dependability ” and an “ excellent tracer ”. He said that a fabric pouch was preferred over the fictile box for holding linked ammunition, and that “ knock-down power is poor, but is compensated by rate of ardor ”. [ 52 ] In December 2006, the Center for Naval Analyses ( CNA ) released a composition on U.S. modest arms in battle. The CNA conducted surveys on 2,608 troops returning from fight in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 12 months. only troops who fired their weapons at foe targets were allowed to participate. Three hundred forty-one troops were armed with M249 SAWs, making up 13 percentage of the review. 71 percentage of M249 users ( 242 troops ) reported that they were satisfied with the weapon. 40 percentage of users preferred feeding the SAW with the soft 100-round pouch, while 21 percentage chose the balmy and hard 200-round pouches each. 60 percentage ( 205 troops ) were satisfied with handling qualities, such as handguards, size, and weight. Of those disgruntled, fair under half thought that it was excessively heavy. M249 users had the lowest levels of atonement with weapon maintainability at 70 percentage ( 239 troops ), most due to the trouble in removing and receiving little components and poor corrosion resistance. The SAW had the highest levels of stoppages at 30 percentage ( 102 troops ), and 41 percentage of those that experienced a blockage said it had a large impingement on their ability to clear the blockage and re-engage their target. sixty-five percentage ( 222 troops ) did not need their machine guns repaired while in field. sixty-five percentage ( 222 troops ) were convinced in the M249 ‘s dependability, defined as grade of soldier confidence their weapon will fire without malfunction, and 64 percentage ( 218 troops ) were confident in its lastingness, defined as level of soldier assurance their weapon will not break or need compensate. Both factors were attributed to high levels of soldiers performing their own maintenance. 60 percentage of M249 users offered recommendations for improvements. seventeen percentage of requests were for making the weapon light, and another 17 percentage were for more durable knock links and drums, arsenic well as other modifications, such as a collapsible stock. [ 53 ]

future refilling [edit ]

A “ amply improved ” U.S. Army-issue M249, circa July 2010 An across-the-board sustenance course of study intended to extend the service lives of M249s has been carried out to refurbish rifles, specially units that suffered from wear due to heavy use. In particular the heave of the telephone receiver rails on the early-models was a defect that occurred in heavy used first-generation M249s. This defect however has been wholly eliminated on later models and is no longer present on the current-issue M249, which has reinforced rails and full-length weld preferably than blemish weld. A refilling of the M249 ‘s buttstock that is redesigned to be adjustable in duration is besides available. [ 54 ] The U.S. Marine Corps tested the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, a lighter, magazine-fed plunder to addendum and partially replace the M249. With plans to buy up to 4,100 IARs to complement and partially replace its 10,000 M249s ( of which 8,000 will remain in service ) held at platoon horizontal surface, [ 55 ] it acquired 450 of the Heckler & Koch HK416 –based weapons for testing. [ 4 ] The Marines started fielding the M27 in 2010, but kept both weapons in the inventory due to the M249 ‘s greater ammunition capability and higher sustained fuel rate ; rifle companies are typically issued 27 IARs and six SAWs. [ 56 ] The U.S. Army does not plan to introduce the IAR. Colonel Robert Radcliffe of the U.S. Army Infantry Research and Development Center stated that an automatic rifle with a magazine would lower the potency and firepower of a squad. While the Marine Corps has 13-man squads, the Army organizes its soldiers into squads of nine and needs well more firepower from the team machine gunners to make up the remainder. The U.S. Army does, however, want to replace aging M249s with newer weapons. [ 55 ] In early 2017, the U.S. Army posted a notice solicit bids for the following Generation Squad Weapon-Automatic Rifle ( NGSW-AR or NGSAR ) to replace the M249. In July 2018, the Army awarded contracts to six companies including Textron, head of the preceding LSAT program where they made development leaps with cased telescope ( CT ) ammunition, for NGSW-AR and ammunition prototypes. These first prototypes will be delivered to the Army for evaluation in June 2019. [ 57 ] The declared requirements include : [ 58 ] [ 59 ]

• Maximum weight of 5.4 kilograms (12 lb), including sling, bipod, and sound suppressor
• Maximum total length of 89 centimeters (35 in)
• Engage pinpoint targets up to 600 meters (2,000 ft), and suppress (area fire targets) to a range of 1,200 meters (3,900 ft)
• Compatible with next-generation Small Arms Fire Control systems

Variants [edit ]

M249 PIP Kit

The product improvement program kit replaced the original steel tubular stock with a plastic stock based upon the shape of the heavier M240 machine gun. The change in stocks allowed for the addition of a hydraulic buffer system to reduce recoil.[60] In addition, the dual gas port settings were reduced to only one; variants with the product improvement kit can no longer fire at a higher cyclic speed. A handguard was added above the barrel to prevent burns, and the formerly fixed barrel changing handle was swapped for a folding unit. Certain parts were beveled or chamfered to prevent cutting soldiers’ hands and arms. Other changes involved the bipod, pistol grip, flash suppressor, and sights.[61] Over the years, additional modifications have been introduced as part of the Soldier Enhancement Program and Rapid Fielding Initiative. These include an improved bipod, 100– and 200–round fabric “soft pack” magazines (to replace the original plastic ammunition boxes), and Picatinny rails for the feed tray cover and forearm so that optics and other accessories may be added.[49][62]

M249 Paratrooper

The M249 Paratrooper, often called “Para”, is a compact version of the gun with a shorter barrel and sliding aluminum buttstock based on that of the Minimi Para, so-called because of its intended use by airborne troops. It is much shorter and considerably lighter than the regular M249 at 893 mm (35 in) long and 7.1 kg (16 lb) in weight.[39]

A Ranger with 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment armed with a Mk 46 machine artillery provides overwatch security on an objective during a mission in Iraq, November 2006 .

M249 Special Purpose Weapon

The M249 SPW is a lightweight and shorter version of the M249 is designed to meet USSOCOM special operations forces requirements. The barrel changing handle, magazine insertion well, and vehicle mounting lug all have been removed to reduce weight. As a result, the SPW cannot be mounted in vehicles or use M16 magazines. Picatinny rails were added to the feed cover and forearm for the mounting of optics, lasers, vertical foregrips, and other M4 SOPMOD kit accessories. The SPW has a detachable bipod. The SPW’s lightweight barrel is longer than that of the Para model, giving it a total length of 908 mm (36 in) and a weight of 5.7 kg (13 lb).[32]

Mk 46

The Mk 46 is a variant of the M249 SPW that was adopted by USSOCOM. The program that led to both the Mk 46 and Mk 48, that was headed by the US Naval Special Warfare Command (NAVSPECWAR). Like the SPW, the barrel changing handle, magazine insertion well, and vehicle mounting lugs have been removed to save weight. However, the Mk 46 retains the standard M249 plastic buttstock instead of the collapsible buttstock used on the SPW. The Picatinny rail forearm differs slightly from the SPW. The Mk 46 has the option of using the lighter SPW barrel or a thicker, fluted barrel of the same length.[63]

Mk 48

This is a 7.62×51mm NATO version of the Mk 46, used by USSOCOM, when a heavier cartridge is required.[63] It is officially classified as an LWMG (Light Weight Machine Gun) and was developed as a replacement for the Mk 43 Mod 0/1. The M60 based machine guns are a great deal more portable than the heavier M240 based designs used elsewhere in the US military in the infantry medium machine gun role. However, the M60 based designs have a long history of insufficient reliability. Trials conducted through the mid-1990s led the US Army to replace its M60 with the M240B GPMGs. The M240B, however, weighs in at ≈27.5 lb and is about 49″ long with the standard barrel. NAVSPECWAR was reluctant to give up the increased portability of the M60 (≈22.5 lb, 37.7″ OAL with the shortest “Assault Barrel”) designs in spite of the M240’s increased reliability. A request was put in for a new machine gun in 2001, and FN responded with a scaled-up version of the M249 weighing in at ≈18.5 lb with an OAL of ≈39.5″. The new design achieved much better reliability than the M60-based weapons while bettering its light weight and maintaining the same manual of arms as the already in-use M249. USSOCOM was slated to begin receiving deliveries of the new gun in August 2003.[64]

M249S

This is a semiautomatic version manufactured for the civilian sport shooting and collector’s market. Derived from the fully automatic military firearm, this version shares most of the major components of the military models with the exception of the firing mechanism and the addition of welded internal components to prevent conversion to a fully automatic mode. Notably, this version retains the ability to be belt fed, an uncommon feature in civilian firearms.[65][66]

Users [edit ]

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]

Sources [edit ]

Government publications