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Encyclopedia > Light machine guns
A Romanian soldier aids a U.S. Marine in clearing a RPK during the weapons familiarization phase of Exercise Rescue Eagle 2000 at Babadag Range, Romania, on July 15, 2000
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A Romanian soldier aids a U.S. Marine in clearing a RPK during the weapons familiarization phase of Exercise Rescue Eagle 2000 at Babadag Range, Romania, on July 15, 2000

A light machine gun (LMG) is a categorization type, or class of machine guns that are generally lighter than other of machine guns of its period, and usually designed to be carried by an individual soldier, but sometimes with an assistant. In practice, they are either automatic rifles (machine rifles) or medium machine guns with a bipod, a stock, and sometimes a pistol grip. Modern light machine guns are often lighter caliber, in addition to being lighter weight. The RPK (Ruchnoy pulemet Kalashnikova, Russian: Ручной пулемёт Калашникова) is the light machine gun that replaced the RPD in the role as squad automatic weapon for Soviet infantry. ... A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... An automatic rifle is a term used to describe a full-sized, full-powered military rifle capable of fully-automatic fire; a type of automatic firearm. ... A Medium Machine Gun or MMG in modern terms, usually refers to a belt-fed, full-power rifle caliber (such as 7. ...


Usually an LMG, or LMG version of a firearm is intended to act as a support weapon in that it can generate a greater volume of continuous fire than the usual firearms carried by infantry soldiers, but at the cost of greater weight and higher ammunition consumption.


While it is usually possible to fire an LMG "from the hip" or on the move, they are much more accurate when fired from a prone position, especially when using a bipod. They are often designed to be used with magazines, not belts, but some, such as the M249, use both. Categories: Military stubs | Firearm components ... For the religious order known as the Minimi (Minims, Order of the Minims), see Minim (religious order). ...


Light machine guns are often used as squad automatic weapons. A squad automatic weapon (SAW) is a light or general-purpose machine gun, usually equipped with a bipod and firing a 7. ...


Examples

These were either exclusively LMG's, or had a LMG version.

The ZB vz. ... Bren carried by a Canadian soldier in 1945 A Home Army soldier equipped with ZB vz. ... Fusil-Mitraileur Chauchat Mle 15 Type Light machine gun Nation French Era World War I History Date of design 1907 Production period 1914 - 1924 Service duration 1914 - 60. ... The Lewis Gun was a pre-WWI era British machine gun that continued to see service all the way through WWII. It is visually distinctive because of the wide tubular cooling shroud around the barrel, and the top mounted drum magazines. ... Caliber: 7. ... The RPK (Ruchnoy pulemet Kalashnikova, Russian: Ручной пулемёт Калашникова) is the light machine gun that replaced the RPD in the role as squad automatic weapon for Soviet infantry. ... The RPK 74 is a Kalashnikov type machine gun chambered in 5. ... For the religious order known as the Minimi (Minims, Order of the Minims), see Minim (religious order). ...

See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
First World War.com - Weapons of War - Machine Guns (1049 words)
Machine guns of all armies were largely of the heavy variety and decidedly ill-suited to portability for use by rapidly advancing infantry troops.
As the war developed machine guns were adapted for use on tanks on broken ground, particularly on the Western Front (where the majority of machine guns were deployed).
Light machine guns were adopted too for incorporation into aircraft from 1915 onwards, for example the Vickers, particularly with the German adoption of interrupter equipment, which enabled the pilot to fire the gun through the aircraft's propeller blades.
First World War.com - Encyclopedia - Lewis Gun (0 words)
As a light automatic machine gun it was considered the best and most reliable available at the time and was soon adapted for use both at sea by the Royal Navy, and for use in the air by aircraft observers (with the Vickers Gun used for forward firing through the aircraft's propeller blades).
The Lewis Gun was belatedly adopted by the U.S. Army in 1917, manufactured in New York using 0.30 inch calibre ammunition.
Although a popular choice the gun was nonetheless expensive to manufacture, for all that six could be produced in the time it took to manufacture a single Vickers Gun.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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