•Range
•Maximum - 3,725 metersCombat Maximum effective - 1,100 meters
•Grazing fire - 600 meters
•Maximum effective range of the M240B for an area target:
Tripod – 1,100 meters
Bipod – 800 meters
•Maximum effective range for a point target:
Tripod – 800 meters
Bipod – 600 meters
Feed
•Ammunition capacity: 50-round soft nylon box, 100-round cardboard box
•Disintegrating metal link - M13
•Direction: Left to right
Barrel
•Length: 24.7 inches/62.7 cm
•Quick changeable-type mechanism
•Muzzle velocity: 2,800 fps/853 m/s
Rates of Fire with the MAG58/M240
•Sustained rate of fire is 100 rounds per minute in bursts of 6 to 9 rounds in 4- to 5- second intervals. It is recommended to change the barrel if firing the sustained rate every 10 minutes.
•Rapid rate of fire is 200 rounds per minute in bursts of 6 to 9 rounds in 2-to 3- second intervals. It is recommended that the barrel be changed every two minutes if firing at the rapid rate.
•Cyclic rate of fire is the maximum amount of ammunition which can be expended in one minute. It is recommended that the barrel be changed every one minute interval if firing at the cyclic rate.
Action
•Locking feature is a rotary bolt.
•Full automatic from the open bolt
•The trigger type is a spur.
•Safety type is a cross bar-push selector with safe and fire settings.
•Safety location is on the left side above the trigger guard.
Background
Figure 1-2 M240B Machine Gun used by U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
The FN MAG is a gas-operated, belt-fed, air-cooled automatic weapon. It uses the long piston-stroke gas system with the gas regulator located below the barrel. The bolt is locked using a swinging shoulder that engages the cut in the floor of the receiver. The air-cooled barrel is quick-detachable, with the attached carrying handle to help handling of the hot barrel. The receiver is made from steel stampings.
The FN MAG is a machine gun manufactured by Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Belgium. It was developed in the 1950s, has been in production since 1958, and has become a widely adopted 7.62x51mm NATO-firing machine gun used by more than 20 countries. MAG stands for Mitrailleuse d'Appui General, translated as “general purpose machine gun” (GPMG). It has been adopted by more than 80 countries worldwide and is license-produced in the U.S., U.K., Argentina, Taiwan, India, Singapore, and Egypt.
The FN MAG derivative M240 manufactured by Fabrique Nationale's subsidiary FN Manufacturing, Inc., in Columbia, SC, was chosen by the U.S. military for different roles after large world-wide searches and competitions. It has mainly replaced the M60 in most roles, though it replaced some other machine guns in the co-axial. The MAG58 and variants are in production in Belgium and are currently exported to many nations. The MAG58 and its descendants will continue to see service throughout the world for some time.
The M240 is a belt-fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, crew-served, fixed-headspace weapon. It is compatible only with the M13 Link system, also used by many other western (especially NATO) machine-gun designs. Its functionality is demonstrated by its ability to be mounted on the M122A1 tripod, a bipod, on vehicles, or on aircraft.
It was first adopted in 1977 by the U.S. Army as a co-axial tank gun and slowly adopted for more applications in 1980s and 1990s. The M240 and M240E1 were adopted for use on vehicles, which led to further adoption more uses, especially for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine infantry. While possessing many of the same basic characteristics as its predecessor, the durability of the M240 system results in superior reliability when compared to the M60. The M240 actually has a more complex gas system than the M60, but can function better with lower maintenance and higher reliability, though these features come at greater cost and weight.
Chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge, the MAG uses a locking system similar to that of the Browning Automatic Rifle and has made use of some other work by John Browning, who had worked on other earlier designs in Belgium. The downward locking bolt drives the belt-feed system, which is a similar type to that of the MG42, itself borrowing it from an earlier design. They are, however, not identical; the MAG works with the standard NATO-belt type, which was a capability not added until a 1968 redesign of the MG3, a descendant of the MG42. The MG42 also influenced the MAG's trigger mechanism
The FN MAG has proven to be extremely reliable under all conditions. In U.S. Army testing, it could fire, on average, 26,000 rounds until a failure (such as a part breaking). Mean rounds to a stoppage figures, such as a jam, were lower.
One popular feature of this weapon is that the barrels can be switched very quickly; indeed, during sustained usage, a well-trained crew can swap to a fresh barrel within about three seconds and are technically supposed to do so after every 200-round belt during sustained fire in order to prevent overheating. In practice, this change is often skipped, and the weapon can take it. During the Falklands War, for example, British Paratroopers participating in the assault on Goose Green were forced to fire over 8,000 rounds through individual barrels without significant pause or opportunity to change them, resulting in muzzles glowing white hot, but weapons still proving effective.
They are both (M60/M240) scheduled to be replaced by a lightweight machine gun (JSSAP/PMSW), which will also replace some of the M249 Squad Automatic Weapons. Among the likely candidates is another FN product, SOCOM's latest 7.62mm machine gun — the M249-derived Mk 48 Mod 0, scheduled for fielding starting in 2006 with U.S. Navy special operations units with whom it was developed.
The NATO version of the M240 is known as the MAG 58. The U.S.-made M240 family is produced under the same specifications as the MAG 58, enabling all M240 variants to have interchangeable/interoperable components with foreign-produced NATO-equivalent weapons, resulting in significant advantages in training, logistics support, tactical versatility, and joint operations. For example, an M240B's buttstock and bipod may be carried in a vehicle to enable the crew to convert the co-axial weapon to an infantry model in the event that they are forced to withdraw from an inoperable vehicle.
There are several variants, and the MAG58 has become a true general-purpose machine gun (GPMG). The following is a list of the variants:
Variants
MAG or MAG58
Figure 1-3 MAG58 Machine Gun
•MAG58: The FN MAG is a machine gun manufactured by Fabrique Nationale (FN), Belgium. It was developed in the 1950s, has been in production since 1958, and has become a widely adopted 7.62mm NATO-firing machine gun used by more than 20 countries. MAG stands for Mitrailleuse d'Appui General, translated as “general purpose machine gun” (GPMG), refer to Figure 1-3.
The M240, formally United States Machine Gun, 7.62mm, M240, is a family of belt-fed medium machine guns firing the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge (w/M13 Link). It is based on the FN MAG machine gun, which is based on the Browning Automatic Rifle. The M240 has been used by the United States armed forces since the late 1970s. It is used extensively by infantry, as well as ground vehicles and aircraft.