Machine Gun

C

Heavy Machine Guns

Heavy machine guns fire .50-caliber (12.7-mm) or larger ammunition and generally require a crew. Heavy machine guns can deliver concentrated and devastating firepower. They often serve as the main armament on land combat vehicles and on some aircraft. The M2 heavy machine gun, designed by American inventor John Moses Browning, was first built at the end of World War I (1914-1918). With some modifications, it still serves in the U.S. military and in other armies of the world. Another type of heavy machine gun is the U.S. Mark 19 machine gun, which fires 40-mm grenades. The grenades explode upon impact, making the weapon useful against both armored targets and enemy soldiers.

D

Externally Powered Machine Guns

Externally powered weapons are found in many military aircraft, in some vehicles, and in antiaircraft units on the ground or aboard naval vessels. Many externally powered machine guns are modern motorized versions of the hand-turned Gatling gun, patented by American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling in 1862. Gatling guns feature several barrels that rotate around a central shaft. Gatling guns can achieve high rates of fire without overheating. The 30-mm Gatling gun on the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft can fire 3,900 rounds a minute and is capable of destroying armored targets such as tanks.

IV

History and Development of Machine Guns

The invention of the machine gun was one of the most important advances in military technology. The rapid and continuous gunfire from machine guns during World War I (1914-1918) required military leaders to totally rethink battlefield tactics that had been used for hundreds of years. The machine gun has remained a powerful and important military weapon ever since.

Until the 19th century, firearms such as firelocks, flintlocks, and muskets were limited by the loading and ignition methods of the day. After each round was fired, the gun needed to be cleaned and carefully reloaded with powder, shot, and wadding before it could be fired again. The introduction of the percussion cap in the 19th century, and the development of the self-contained cartridge after it, reduced the time it took to fire again (see Small Arms: Small Arms Ammunition). In the 1830s American inventor Samuel Colt produced a practical revolving gun that used a percussion cap. During the American Civil War (1861-1865) the Confederate Army used a hand-cranked machine gun that could fire 65 rounds per minute from one barrel, but the design was prone to overheating.

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The Gatling gun was the first repeating gun capable of sustained and accurate firing. It featured several barrels arranged in a circle about a central axis. Richard Gatling invented and produced it in the last half of the 19th century. The first models had six barrels that used .58-caliber and later .50-caliber ammunition. A hand crank rotated the barrels to operate the gun. Ammunition dropped from above the gun into each barrel as the barrels rotated. After firing, the empty cartridge would fall out of the bottom of the gun as the barrels continued to rotate. The Gatling gun was used late in the American Civil War and was used in several other wars in the last half of the 19th century. The mechanically operated gun could fire at a rate of approximately 1,000 rounds per minute. Gatling later developed an electric motor for the gun that produced a firing rate of 3,000 rounds per minute.

The world’s first truly automatic machine gun was a single-barrel recoil-operated gun invented by Anglo-American engineer Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, who founded the Maxim Gun Company in 1884. Maxim invented the belt feed to continually feed ammunition to his gun. He also developed a water cooling system to allow his gun to fire continuously without overheating. Maxim guns were built in many sizes and were used extensively during World War I.

John Moses Browning developed the world’s first practical gas-operated machine gun in 1895. The gun was air cooled, had a simplified belt feed, and was lighter and had fewer parts than the Maxim gun. Browning’s brilliant designs were used to create several types of automatic rifles, heavy machine guns, and aircraft guns. Several guns designed by Browning in the early 20th century were used during World War II (1939-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953). The M2 Browning heavy machine gun, designed during World War I, is still in use today.

New machine gun designs incorporate recent advances in ammunition and computerized targeting. The newest guns are designed to be light, accurate, and reliable. However, development of an advanced machine gun called the Objective Crew Served Weapon was canceled in 2007. Other new technologies include radio-controlled robot vehicles that use machine guns to attack targets in combat situations.

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