Lighter .50-cal machine gun sought

[unhappycamper]

Lighter .50-cal machine gun sought
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 29, 2008 11:37:28 EST

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Army and Special Operations Command are stepping up efforts to procure a lighter, modernized .50-caliber machine gun more easily transported than the standard 85-pound M2.

The goal is not to replace the M2, a combat fixture for 70 years but to augment the inventory with a .50-caliber weapon that brings the same firepower at less than half the weight, Army officials said here at the winter convention of the Association of the U.S. Army. Early models of the Light Weight .50-caliber (LW50) are expected to be delivered this year.

“It will be significantly lighter and have less recoil,” said Army Col. Carl Lipsit, program manager for soldier weapons at the service’s Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. “We’ve done a market survey of the arms manufacturers to look and see what is available. It will still be a crew-served weapon with a tripod. It will be man-portable.”

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products is one of the weapon makers contending for the LW50 contract. Its weapon weighs 35 pounds, compared with the 85-pound M2. Including the tripod, the M2 weighs 140 pounds, while GD’s combined gun and tripod weigh 55 pounds.

“The M2 is a reliable, heavy-firepower weapon, but unfortunately it takes a lot of people and a lot of energy to move around,” said Bob Caboretto, GD ATP’s senior program manager for LW50. “This is a weapon which will allow an individual to pick up and move to the top of a building, to get up in the mountains easier — and it provides an awesome capability.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/defense_50cal_lighter_022908/

[applegrove]

1. Oh great. Now they'll be a whole bunch of old .50 calibre guns on the market that

any American can buy. Sometimes I just don't understand America.