A proper GPMG, or a SAW wasn't really introduced till the M60. Why did it take so long to adopt one while relying on outdated ones like the BAR?
Why did it take so long for the US to adopt a LMG/SAW?
A proper GPMG, or a SAW wasn't really introduced till the M60. Why did it take so long to adopt one while relying on outdated ones like the BAR?
because they usually just call in an artillery barrage if they need suppressing fire.
Why do posts like these competely ignore the existence of the 1919 and act like BARs were deployed at the company level?
Artillery
Because there wasn't really a need for one. Weapons tech is always playing catch up to tactics. It's why WW2 saw a huge leap from beginning to end in technology. a SAW wasn't really needed, until you had a bunch of dudes walking through a jungle for days after being dropped off from a helicopter. A SAW isn't needed when you're digging trenches and hanging out in them. You may as well have a heavy machine gun at that point. BARs were more popular in the Pacific with the Marines for precisely that reason.
We didnt. Even if you don't count the M1919 (which is fair, it was an ergonomic nightmare and clearly not designed for firing on the move), the Germans were trend setters with the MG34/42, the rest of the world only really caught up in the 50s. The RPD was only really issued after 1950 and most of the planet adopted the MAG58, which as the name might suggest was first sold in 1958. The M60 was adopted in 1957, so that's right in line with everybody else.
most GPMGs arent really designed to be fired on the move
the modern day M240 is almost exclusively used from its tripod
its really just the M60 that was designed for shoulder fire, despite doctrinally being issued to weapons teams for use in tripods it was more a coincidence that it was re-issued to squads for use on the bipod/shoulder
The modern day 240 is part of a company level WPNS Plt that is tasked out to line platoons that is patrolled with just like the M60 and the tripod is never carried. You're talking nonsense or FOBbit building activities
Idk where you're from anon but in American light infantry the M240 is a platoon staple and the tripod is always carried.
The tripod got ditched alot until the adoption of the M122 LWGM tripod. In the rigors of Afghanistan though platoon level weapons squads would ditch the tripod, or usually only carry one for the 2 M240's
homie literally every Infantry company in the entire United States, from Ranger Regiment to the 101st to the 82nd to 1st ID to 4th MARDIV carries the tripod.
>Company level weapons platoon
240s in the Army are Platoon level, distributed thru Weapons Squads. There was a small period of time in Afghanistan where platoons and their 240s (Whether you're a Muhreen and it was from your Weapons Platoon, or you're Army and it was organic to your platoon) wouldn't carry the tripods, sometimes, when dismounted in the mountains, but it was far from the norm.
t. carried a tripod around Kandahar
I remember reading a memoir of a soldier in Europe and he said even the BAR was rarely fired from the shoulder. Without support it was usually fired from the hip and according to him, fairly accurate within 20 yards with that method.
Although he said it was also shot prone unsupported quite a bit, because quite a few soldiers would ditch the bipod because the Germans would target them because it made it obvious they were the BAR gunner.
The 240 is really only used with the tripod and T&E for static defense, fire plan sketch stuff. they are much more popular mounted on vehicles, although .50s are just a better option. when I was in LAR all of our humvees had M2s or Mk19s and just the LAVs had 240s (1 coax 1 on the vc hatch). Tripod and T&E weren't even issued for the vic guns
The Germans actually came up with a shitty version of the GPMG in WW1 with the MG08/15 and MG 15nA
But they only really got it right in WW2
the 08/15 was kinda the ww1 M1919A6, a gun that served its original role very well, redesigned into somewhat of a half-measure that was functional, but by no means ideal.
most countries adopted the concept at around the same time as the US? the MAG and PK are about as old as the M60. Germany was the one ahead of the curve and they were the ones who invented it; the US was toying with MG42's the moment they could get their hands on them
They kept making the .30 M1919 Browning better, it did the job just fine for a long time. BAR always took a backseat to it. Plus everyone had an M1 Garand, which was a huge advantage on everyone else until like the 50s.
Basically America was ahead of everyone else the entire time. M60 just widened their lead.
>M60 just widened their lead.
How?
The MAG was better
The M60 particularly the newer variants like the E6 are miles better then the absolute brick that is a 240/MAG in a dismounted infantry role. The 240s are absolutely fantastic in vehicles however where their absolutely brick shit house build will keep them running.
Yeah it's way too fricking heavy as an infantry GPMG. Also nice trips
you're an idiot who underestimates how poor the world was in the 1950s, how expensive rebuilding postwar was, and what the priorities were for Cold War rearmament
Because the brass thought having entire squads of semi-automatic riflemen would be sufficient. And maybe it would have been, had they not been up against the best (and first) GPMG in the world at the time.
US Squad Automatic weapons Post WW1:
1918 BAR
1918A2 BAR
M14E1
M16 Rifle issued with clamp Bipod and extra magazines
Stoner LMG
M249
US GPMG's Post WW1
M1919A4 Browning
M1919A6 Browning
M60
M60E3
M240
The US compensated for the weak sauce move of the "Designated Autorifleman" in the M14E1/M16 Bipod era" by doing the soviet elite unit thing and pushing the GPMG down to the squad level.
As a caveat The USMC adopted very limited numbers of M16A2 LMG before wide M249 adoption but these used 30rd mags