The U.S. military is equipped with the latest equipment. Are you ready for the motherland?

On May 16, the US Marine Corps and the Operational Command of Special Forces jointly announced that they would formally apply to the Federal Government Bidding Platform (FBO) to purchase 5,000 medium-sized machine guns that fired .338 Norma Ma Genan (338NM) bullets.

The requirements are: the weight is less than 10.9 kg (24 lbs), the barrel length is 6 10 mm (24 inches), the bullet chain is used for ammunition, and plastic casings are used. It should be noted that this is a "radish recruitment". At present, only the light medium machine gun (LWMMG) developed by General Dynamics can meet this requirement.

This is a light medium machine gun developed by General Dynamics, which made its debut at the NDIA Joint Arms Conference on May 2, 2002 to replace the traditional 7.62mm and12.7mm machine guns. According to informed sources, the application will almost certainly be passed. In other words, this machine gun will become the standard equipment of American special forces and marine corps, replacing M240 medium machine gun and M2HB heavy machine gun.

In China, when we weigh the bullet .338 Norma Ma Genan, we all like to change it to metric 8.6 mm, which leads many people to confuse it with the bullet 338 Lap Amagnan (338LM). On the left is Rapa Magnain with a caliber of .338, and on the right is Norma Ma Genan with a caliber of .338. 1983, the American Institute developed a .338-inch Lap Amagnan bullet according to the requirements put forward by the US Marine Corps. At present, many famous sniper rifles in the world are using this kind of bullet, and this kind of bullet has a high reputation in China.

Norma Ma Genan is a new bullet developed by Norma Ammunition Company of Sweden in 2008. Its performance is very close to that of 338 Lap Amagnan, and so is the bottom edge of the shell. Machine gun is more suitable for .338 Norma Ma Genan bullet, because the peak chamber pressure of .338 Lap Amanian bullet is too high, which will lead to the barrel heating up too fast and shorten its service life. The shell length of the two bullets is 70mm and 65mm, respectively, and the weight of the warheads is also quite different, which is 16.2g and 19.4g respectively. So the two kinds of bullets are not the same thing at all, remind everyone to pay attention. ? From the appearance, the overall design of General Power LWMMG is similar to M240. Although the ammunition is much larger than the 7.62×5 1mm bullet used in M240, and the overall size of LWMMG is also larger than M240, its weight is lighter than M240B, only slightly heavier than M240L of titanium alloy cartridge case. LWMMG adopts the principle of air conduction automation, and the bolt is locked and opened to strike. The long-stroke air guide piston is located below the gun barrel, and the air-cooled gun barrel can be quickly disassembled.

At the initial stage of development, General Dynamics also tried to use .338 Lapmagnum, and finally gave up and switched to .338 Norma Ma Genan. LWMMG adopts short recoil braking technology patented by General Dynamics Company, which has been used on XM3 12 and XM806 12.7mm machine guns. After launching, the gun barrel, the gun barrel sleeve, the air guide system and the gun are set with recoil in the shell to absorb part of the energy of recoil. When the gun barrel, the gun barrel connecting sleeve and the air guide system stop recoil together, the gun group continues to recoil to finish shell throwing. The opposite is true when re-entering. The gun adopts the design of opening the chamber for firing, and adopts frontal impact firing to further offset the recoil. ? Ammunition supply mode is detachable ammunition chain, supplied from the left, and one-way ammunition feeder. The link is actually an enlarged version of the M 13 elastic chain. Although the kinetic energy of .338 Norma Ma Genan bullet is not as big as that of 12.7×99mm bullet, its reaction time, fire density and accuracy are far superior to the latter in the visual range. Compared with the bullet of 7.62×5 1mm, the bullet of .338 Norma Ma Genan has the advantage of absolute crushing.

Many friends may say that the application mentioned the need for plastic casings, and now the bullets are still copper casings. Please rest assured that when General Dynamics first demonstrated LWMMG on 20 12, it proposed to introduce plastic shell model, which could reduce the total weight and cost. The American LSAT light machine gun was successful, using a countersunk bullet with plastic casing, indicating that plastic casing is not a problem for the United States at present. LWMMG went to Afghanistan to conduct battlefield tests, which was widely praised. Compared with M240, the ranging accuracy of LWMMG is much better than M240, because it has higher operational efficiency and can reduce the carrying capacity. According to General Dynamics, 500 rounds of .338 Norma Ma Genan can be equal to 800 rounds of 7.62×5 1mm, so the burden of three-person machine gun group is only 0.77 kg heavier than M240. The specific configuration is LWMMG machine gun, ACOG sight, M 192 tripod, replacement barrel, 500 rounds of ammunition, with a total weight of 46.2kg ... Picatinny guide rail is arranged at the top of LWMMG case, which is convenient for installing various sights. The bullet-proof cover is small in size, which will not affect the use of the sight after opening. LWMMG can use M 192 tripods of M240 and M249, which has excellent versatility.

M240 machine gun is much cheaper than LWMMG, but its range and power are far inferior. At 1000m, the terminal kinetic energy of the 338NM bullet fired by LWMMG is nearly four times higher than that of the 7.62×5 1mm bullet fired by M240, and the difference in accuracy is even more striking. The success of LWMMG can be regarded as a qualitative leap for machine guns brought by new ammunition. Therefore, our master has always insisted that China should develop new medium caliber ammunition and eliminate outdated 53-type 7.62×54R bullets.