A general purpose machine gun (GPMG) in concept is a multi-purpose weapon, a machine gun intended to fill the role of either a light machine gun or medium machine gun, while at the same time being man-portable. For other uses of the phrase see Machine Gun (disambiguation. A light machine gun or LMG is a Machine gun that is generally lighter than other machine guns of the same period and is usually designed to be carried A medium machine gun or MMG, in modern terms usually refers to a belt-fed Automatic firearm firing a full-power Rifle cartridge and However, performance in either role may be inferior to a weapon specifically designed for that role. In modern practice, they are air-cooled medium machine guns firing rifle cartridges such as the 7.62x51mm NATO. The 762x51mm NATO is a Rifle cartridge developed in the 1950s as a standard firearm cartridge among NATO countries They are generally operated from a stationary prone position from either a bipod or tripod, or mounted on a vehicle, as they are usually too powerful and heavy to be fired effectively on foot from an unsupported standing position or on the move. A bipod is a support device that is similar to a Tripod or Monopod, but with two legs
During the inter-war period, Germany developed the Maschinengewehr 34, or MG34, from scratch as a GPMG, as opposed to an adaptation of an existing weapon, such as the MG08/15. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG34, was a German Machine gun that was first produced and accepted for service in 1934, and first issued to units The Maschinengewehr 08, or MG08, was the German Army 's standard Machine gun in World War I and is an almost direct copy of Hiram S The MG34 was air-cooled, belt-fed and had the ability to be mounted on a variety of fixtures and employed in several different roles. Notably, the MG34 remained the standard co-axial weapon for Nazi German vehicles through the Second World War. Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The MG34 was successful enough during use in the opening stages of the Second World War that the concept of the GPMG was adopted in many other post-WWII armies. The MG 34's immediate successor in Wehrmacht service, the MG42, was the most versatile and effective machine gun design of the Second World War. Wehrmacht (literally "defense force" was the name of the unified Armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945 The MG42 (shortened from German: Maschinengewehr 42, or "Machine Gun 42" is a Machine gun that was developed for and entered
The modern GPMG (or "Gimpy" in British Army slang, pronounced with a soft G as in J) is a medium machine gun which operates as a support weapon. The MAG is a Belgian 762 mm General purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale (FN by Ernest Vervier The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. Slang is the use of highly informal Words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's Dialect or Language. The term, which comes from the Belgian-French name Mitrailleuse d'Appui General or General Purpose Machineguns (GPMG), became popular for describing medium machine guns used in multiple roles. The original Belgian-French term Mitrailleuse a Gaz is also known to be used. The mediums fired rifle caliber ammunition, but had some concessions for more extended firing and more general usage. This generally included both bipod and tripod/pintle mounting options and quick-change barrels. The first medium machine gun used as a GPMG traces back to World War I, where aircooled medium machine guns were used in many different roles, typically with larger magazines on aircraft, tanks, and ships, and in lighter configurations by infantry on bipods or tripods. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All
The MG3, a direct descendant of the MG42, is still in service with the German Army and others. The MG3 is a German air-cooled belt-fed General purpose machine gun chambered in the 7 The MG42 (shortened from German: Maschinengewehr 42, or "Machine Gun 42" is a Machine gun that was developed for and entered The German Army (Deutsches Heer heɐ) is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Belgian FN MAG, FN Mitrailleuse d'Appui General (general purpose machine gun) has long been the most widely-used GPMG among NATO and other western armies. The MAG is a Belgian 762 mm General purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale (FN by Ernest Vervier The North Atlantic Treaty The British Army and other Commonwealth forces used it to replace the venerable Vickers Gun, beginning in the late 1950s. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled.
The US Army has adopted the FN MAG as the M240 to replace the previous US GPMG (also widely used by allied nations), the M60 machine gun. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The M60 (formally the United States Machine Gun Caliber 762 mm M60) is a family of American General purpose machine guns firing 7 The US Army uses the M249 - the MINIMI - as its light machine gun/squad automatic weapon, and the M2 machine gun (using the .50 BMG cartridge) is used in the heavy machine gun role. The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon ( M249 SAW) is the United States military designation for a sub-family of the FN Minimi Squad automatic The Minimi (short for French: Mini Mitrailleuse; “mini machine gun” is a Belgian 5 For the weapon known in British Forces service as the LSW see SA80 For the weapon known in American service as the SAW see M249 A squad automatic This article is about the.50 caliber M2 machine gun For the.30-06 M2 machine gun see M1919 Browning machine gun. A cartridge (also known as a "round" packages the Bullet, Gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the
Since the late 1950s or early 1960s, the Czechs produced the vz. 59 general purpose machine-gun in both 7.62x54mmR and 7. The 762x54mmR Rifle cartridge is a Russian design dating back to 1891 62 mm NATO (for export models), for which light and heavy barrels were made for differing tactical roles. The approximate Russian equivalent is the PK/PKM family of multi-purpose machine-guns which has been in Russian, and previously Soviet, military service since 1964, and which has been widely exported.
Since 1967, the People's Republic of China has also produced a general purpose machine-gun in 7. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES 62x54mmR as a hybrid weapon derived from several different machine-gun models and with the original model designation of Type 67; since then, second and third modified and improved models of this gun have been made and have been designated Type 67-1 and Type 67-2 respectively.