Somebody needs to investigate this so called general's qualifications. He's either grossly misinformed, or a really bad liar...
It seems that the "effective distance" of an M-2 machine gun is roughly 2000 meters. The maximum range is stated to be 6765m, or about 4 miles. But you won't be hitting anything at that range.... The maximum effective range is said to be roughly a mile and a quarter.
Mark
Try "the general" is a really brazen liar, confident in the knowledge that he won't get called on his lies by the liberal anti-gun media. The more recent ZPU-4 using 14.5x114 WHICH IS TWICE AS POWERFUL AS THE BMG .50 ROUND, has an effective altitude of 1400meters and a max EFFECTIVE range of 2200 meters - about 1 1/3 miles