The FN MAG is a Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale (FN) by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries and it has been made under licence in several countries, including Argentina, Canada, Egypt, India and the United Kingdom.
An FN MAG with modern polymer furniture
FN Mle D variant of the Browning M1918 (BAR)
Wehrmacht reenactors with a belt-fed MG 42
A schematic showing the mechanism of the FN MAG.
General-purpose machine gun
A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered for various fully powered cartridges such as the 7.62×51mm NATO, 7.62×54mmR, 7.5×54mm French, 7.5×55mm Swiss and 7.92×57mm Mauser, and be configured for mounting to different stabilizing platforms from bipods and tripods to vehicles, aircraft, boats and fortifications, usually as an infantry support weapon or squad automatic weapon.
The MG-42 type general-purpose machine guns in both bipod and tripod configurations. The tall tripod on the right is for anti-aircraft use.
MG 34 belt-fed tripod version (top) and saddle-drum magazine bipod version (below)
MG 42/59
MG3
