X-Nico

4 unusual facts about M249 light machine gun


C79 optical sight

The M145 Machine Gun Optic is a variant of the C79 that was developed for the U.S. Army and is commonly mounted on M240 and M249 machine guns.

Gas-operated reloading

This system is used in weapons such as the Bren light machine gun, AK-47, M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, FN MAG and M1 Garand.

M249 light machine gun

A month later, Frankford Arsenal decided upon two cartridge designs for the new LMG: a 6 mm cartridge and a new 5.56 mm cartridge with a much larger case.

On August 23, 1985, then-U.S. Under Secretary of the Army James R. Ambrose suspended M249 production pending the development of the product improvement program (PIP) intended to fix these problems.



see also