"Do you want it hot? Do you want it fast?"
Posted on 07/19/2010 8:42:18 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The U.S. Department of Defense recently ordered modification kits (for $5,700 each) for M2 12.7mm (.50 caliber) machine-guns. These kits upgrade existing weapons to the M2E2 standard and allow for quick barrel changes. Each barrel weighs 10.9 kg/24 pounds. There is also a mounting rail for scopes and a flash suppressor. Earlier this year, the Department of Defense also bought 8,000 more M2 machine-gun barrels (for $850 each). This M2E2 version is the best upgrade delivered for the M2 so far. There are others in the works. It was two years ago that the U.S. Department of Defense gave General Dynamics $9 million to try and develop a lightweight .50 caliber (12.7mm) machine-gun (to be known as LW50 for the moment) that works. The LW50 is supposed to be ready for field testing next year. Designing and building a lighter and more effective 12.7mm machine-gun has been an elusive goal.
An earlier attempt (the XM312) by General Dynamics did not work out so well. Actually, there are several other competitors for this project, and several failed attempts in the last few decades. The army wants a weapon that weighs about half as much as the current weapon (the 38 kg/84 pound M-2), has fewer parts, less recoil and is easier to maintain. Unfortunately, none of the proposed designs has solved the biggest problem with earlier attempts; low rate of fire (usually about half the M2's 500 rounds a minute).
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
Improving on a Browning design is not supposed to be easy... and it’s not.
Hard to improve on John Browning...that man was a genius!
I agree.
Defense money well spent.
XM307 failed to replace Ma Duce as well.
It is hard to improve on perfection and the M2 is as close to perfect as a weapon can get.
"Do you want it hot? Do you want it fast?"
When Browning first sold his .32 auto to FN Liege/Herstal Belgium a young engineer discovered a way to improve production without harming the design. He was told to leave it just as Browning had designed it.
Browning later found out about it and admitted it would have cut cost and not harmed the gun a bit. Still FN was right in keeping it all Browning.
There has never been a gun designer even close to Browning but that doesn’t mean the designs can’t be improved.
IIRC, that young engineer went on to collaborate with John Browning on the High Power and went on to design the FN49 and the FAL.
That said, while it’s not impossible to improve on one, it is, again, very difficult.
I built my own LR-308 for $0 labor. Tearing a M-2 down is not big deal.
Yes, Dieudonné Saive was one of the all time great gun designers as both the FN49 and FAL were world standard rifles. I personally like the looks of the 1949 and would love to own a semi auto FAL.
I *do* own a semi-auto FAL. :D
I love the Ma Duce..... Guess this mod removes the all the way in and two an a half out headspace with no gauge.
I owned a 1949 in 7mm Mauser and wish I still had it. It was all machined steel and walnut. Looking at the receiver etc. it must have cost a fortune to manufacture. Mine shot fine and I really liked the adjustable gas valve tho I never did have to adjust it.
I would settle for just a plain old British issue as I understand they were semi only.
That looks like you have put some money into an already expensive gun.
Plenty of those running around, but parts and add ons are a lot harder to find as the ‘metric’ guns were a lot more common. Mine is an Israeli heavy barrel model, and I probably have about $1600 in it including the weapon.
You can get a Commonwealth (Brit/Aus/Can) one for $500-700, and a basic metric for about the same more or less on the used market. My Israeli was ~$1K, IIRC, and I added a Magpul stock, DSA Picatinny top cover, a Pentax scope (on closeout) and a Tapco grip (plus a few other bits). I’m going to send it to a Texas smith that specializes in the FAL to have the barrel freefloated. Should still be less than $2K when I’m done. Considering an M1A/M14 type starts at about $1600....
Yeah, that was the big mystery to us gunners with the lightweight aerial .50 version. We left the barrel alone for the most part and just cleaned the thing in kerosene. We did have armorers for the touchy stuff of course.........
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