General-purpose machine gun
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A general-purpose machine gun is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles. Many medium machine guns are also considered general-purpose machin
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
FN MAG
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The FN MAG is a Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries and it has been made under
General-purpose machine gun
…in the MG 34 and MG 42, influencing many post-war general-purpose machine guns, many still in use today. They lent design elements to the Belgian FN MAG and the American M60, while spawning the Zastava M53, Swiss M51, and Austrian MG 74. The MG 42's qualities of firepower and usability meant that it…
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.