M2 MACHINE GUN: THE MODERN DAY HMG OF THE US ARMED FORCES

The M2 machine gun is an  incredible story of longevity.

Of all the weapons to come from the genius  of John Moses Browning, the M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun may have been his crowning  achievement. It certainly was one of his finest,and one of the last to ever be born at the  desk of this giant innovator of American guns. Hands down, the “Ma Deuce,” as it’s reverently  called by all who’ve witnessed it’s gracefully 

destructive power, is the longest produced  machine gun the world arms market has ever seen.  

Browning’s design was finished in 1918,ntered  service with the US Armed Forces in 1921,and the patent was filed in July 1923. It’s  still manufactured and in use by militaries around the world to this day. The M2 is  an automatic, belt-fed, recoil-operated, air-cooled, crew-operated machine gun. The M2  is crew transportable with limited amounts of ammunition over short distances. This gun is  has a back plate with spade grips, trigger, and bolt latch release. The gun is also equipped  with leaf-type rear sight, flash suppressor

and a spare barrel assembly. By repositioning  some of the component parts, ammunition may be  

fed from either the left or right side. A  disintegrating metallic link-belt is used to feed the ammunition into the weapon. The gun is  capable of single-shot, as well as automatic fire.In addition, the M2 may be mounted on ground  mounts and most vehicles as an anti-personnel and anti-aircraft weapon. Associated components  are the M63 antiaircraft mount and the M3 tripod mount. The M2 .50 Cal. flexible version is

used  as a ground gun on the M3 tripod mount or various Naval mounts. The M2 .50 Cal., M48 turret type,  fixed type, and soft mount are installed on mounts of several different types of combat vehicles  and ships. The weapon provides automatic weapon suppressive fire for offensive and defensive  purposes. This weapon can be used effectively against personnel, light armored vehicles;  low, slow-flying aircraft; and small boats.

Before we get to our main question,  let’s first look at the origin of M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun. Machine guns were heavily used in World War I, and weapons of larger than rifle caliber  began appearing on both sides of the conflict.The larger rounds were needed to defeat the armor  that was being introduced to the battlefield,both on the ground and in the air. During World  War I, the Germans introduced a heavily armored airplane, the Junkers J.I. The armor-made aircraft  machine guns using conventional rifle ammunition (such as the .30-06) ineffective. Consequently, the American Expeditionary Force's commander General John J. Pershing asked  for a larger caliber machine gun. Pershing asked the Army Ordnance Department to develop a machine  gun with a caliber of at least 0.50 inches and a muzzle velocity of at least 2,700 feet per second.  U.S. Col. John Henry Parker, commanding a machine gun school in France, observed the effectiveness  of a French 11 mm incendiary armor-piercing round.

 

While the .50 caliber was being developed,  some German T Gewehr 1918 anti-tank rifles and ammunition were seized. The German  rounds had a muzzle velocity of 2,700 ft/s, an 800 gr bullet, and could penetrate armor 1 in  thick at a range of 230 m. Winchester improved the  .50 caliber round to have similar performance.  Ultimately, the muzzle velocity was 2,750 ft/s. Then in 1926, John M. Browning died . Between  1927 and 1932, S.H. Green studied the design problems of the M1921 and the needs of the armed  services. The result was a single receiver design that could be turned into seven types of .50  caliber machine guns by using different jackets, 
barrels, and other components. The new  receiver allowed right or left side feed. In 1933, Colt manufactured several prototype  Browning machine guns. With support from the Navy, Colt started manufacturing the M2 in 1933.  The current M2HB is manufactured in the U.S. by General Dynamics Ohio Ordnance Works, and  U.S. Ordnance for use by the U.S. government, and for allies via Foreign Military Sales, as well  as by foreign manufacturers such as FN Herstal. 
Now we will discuss what the M2 .50 Caliber  has, thus made it still popular today.The M2 machine gun on the M3 tripod  provided a very stable firing platform. Together with its slow rate of fire and  its traversing and elevating mechanism, the M2 was used to a very limited extent  as a sniper weapon during the Vietnam war at fixed installations such as firebases
platforms, adding steel base plates and posts  to further stabilize the M2 on the M3 tripod.  
Together with the use of Starlight night vision  scopes, the M2 severely limited enemy movement  within 1,000m of the perimeter of a firebase. For its ammunition part, there are several different types of ammunition used in the  M2HB and AN aircraft guns. From World War II through the Vietnam War, the big  Browning was used with the standard ball,  armor-piercing, armor-piercing incendiary,  and armor-piercing incendiary tracer rounds.  All .50 ammunition designated "armor-piercing"  was required to completely perforate  
0.875 inches of hardened steel armor plate at  a distance of 91 m and 0.75 inches at 500 m. 
Today the M2 still serves with each of the armed  services and the Coast Guard. In the Army it is 
generally used by vehicle crews, including  M1A2 Abrams tanks, while the Marines use a tripod-mounted version and on vehicles. The  Navy and Air Force use it to defend ships and air bases. The U.S. Army is currently working on  a lighter version it projects will weigh 20 to 30 percent less. Despite occasional improvements to  the basic design however there is no replacement for the M2 in sight and the “Ma Deuce” could  very well serve until the 22nd century. Do you know, this king of automatic  weaponry has seen action in more than  24 official conflicts around the globe, so our  guess is that you’ve probably heard about it. 
For your information, the Browning .50 caliber  machine gun has been used extensively as a  vehicle weapon and for aircraft armament by the  United States from the 1930s to the present.