Light machine gun
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A light machine gun (commonly abbreviated LMG) is a categorization type (or class) of machine guns that are generally lighter than other machine guns of its period, and usually designed to be carried by an individual soldier, but sometimes with an assistant. In practice, they are either automatic rifles (machine rifles) or medium machine guns with a bipod, a stock, and sometimes a pistol grip. Modern light machine guns are often chambered for smaller calibers than medium machine guns, and are mostly considerably lighter and more compact.
Usually, a light machine gun is intended to act as a support weapon, in that it can generate a greater volume of continuous automatic fire than the usual firearms carried by infantry soldiers, at the cost of greater weight and higher ammunition consumption.
While it is usually possible to fire a light machine gun "from the hip" or on the move, they are much more accurate when fired from a prone position, especially when using a bipod. Early light machine guns (especially those derived from automatic rifles, such as the BAR) were sometimes magazine-fed. Modern light machine guns, however, are designed to fire from a belt of ammunition, which allow them to fire continually for longer periods of time without the need to reload. Other modern light machine guns, such as the M249, are capable of firing from both an ammunition belt or a detachable box-type magazine.
Light machine guns are often used as squad automatic weapons (SAW).
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Examples
These were either exclusively light machine guns, had a light machine gun variant or were employed in the light machine gun role with certain adaptations:
1900s–1920s
- Madsen machine gun
- M1909 Benet-Mercie (.30-06 Springfield)
- Hotchkiss Mk I (.303 British)
- Lewis machine gun (.303 British)
- Chauchat machine gun
1920s–1950s
- ZB vz.26 (7.92 x 57 mm)
- Bren / (L4) (.303 British / 7.62 × 51 mm NATO)
- Brno series
- Browning M1919A6 (.30-06 Springfield)
1950s–present
- IMI Negev (5.56 x 45 mm NATO)
- LMG 36 (5.56 x 45 mm)
- RPD (7.62 x 39 mm)
- RPK (7.62 x 39 mm)
- RPK-74 (5.45 x 39 mm)
- Colt CMG-1 (5.45 x 39 mm)
- M249 (5.56 x 45 mm)
- L86 A1 (5.56 x 45 mm)
- Steyr AUG/HBAR (5.56 x 45 mm)
- Colt Automatic Rifle (5.56 x 45 mm)
- Heckler & Koch G36 with Beta C-Mag (5.56 x 45 mm)
See also
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