FN Herstal FN SCAR US Army Vietnam War

FN Herstal’s Minimi light machine gun was officially type classified by the US Army as the M249 on 1 February 1982 following its selection to meet the service’s SAW requirement. It both replaced and augmented the M16A1 carried by the automatic rifleman in each army and marine fire team, as well as the 7.62mm M60 general purpose machine gun in the Platoon. During the Vietnam War the disadvantages of humping the 11.1 kg M60 and its ammunition outweighed the ability of the 7.62mm round to penetrate logs, termite hills and undergrowth.

Taking a gamble, which eventually paid off handsomely, Belgium’s FN Herstal developed the 5.56mm Minimi in anticipation that NATO would adopt the 5.56 x 45mm cartridge as its second standard small arms calibre. The Minimi was unveiled in 1974 and was thus well placed when the US Army issued a Materiel Need Document for a 5.56mm SAW two years later. The standard Minimi weighs 7.1kg unloaded and measures 1.04 m in length. Although usually belt-fed from 200-round plastic boxes the weapon can also be fed from 30-round NATO standard magazines without modification. It has a cyclic rate of fire of 1,000 rpm and an effective range of 1,000m.

The US Army describes the effective range of the SAW against point targets as 600m, against area targets as 800m and in the suppressive role as 1,000m. More than 30 countries have acquired the Minimi and the weapon is made under license by Beretta for the Italian armed forces, by Thales Australia for the Australian and New Zealand defence forces, Sumitomo Heavy Industries for the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force and Taiwan’s Hsing-Hua Arsenal. In the Australian, Belgium and Canadian armies the Minimi replaced the heavy barrel automatic rifle (HBAR) variant of the FN 7.62mm FAL assault rifle.

Since 1996 FN Herstal has produced the Minimi New Standard weapon offering improved reliability and ergonomics. The company also offers variants for users willing to sacrifice range in order to save space. The first to appear was the Para Mini which has a 349 mm barrel in place of the standard 465 mm barrel and a sliding buttstock which reduces the weapon’s length to 766mm when the butt is retracted and 914mm when extended. Maximum effective range is reduced to 800m. Recognising that most engagements occur in the 50-600 ‘mid-range battlezone’ many recent customers including the British Army and Royal Marines have selected the ParaMinimi for general infantry service. In the UK, each of the two four-man fire teams within an infantry section is now issued with a Minimi for the primary purpose of providing suppressive fire at ranges out to 600 m. The BAE Systems L86A2 Light Support Weapon now equips the designated marksman in each fire team; the combination of bipod, heavy barrel and optical sight enables the accurate engagement of targets out to 800 m.

Based on the SAW the Minimi Special Purpose Weapon (SPW), classified in US service as the M249E4, features the short barrel and stock of the Para model as well as Mil-Std-1913 ‘Picatinny’ rails mounted on the feed cover and handguard. To further reduce weight the bipod, STANAG magazine port and the tripod to a 2001 USSOCOM requirement for a new 7.62mm LMG to replace its worn out M60s. The weapon revives the 7.62mm Minimi which FN Herstal developed in the early 1970s in parallel with the 5.56mm version in case NATO decided not to adopt the smaller cartridge as an official calibre. The Mk 48 weighs 34% less than the US Army’s standard FN Herstal M240B 7.62mm medium machine gun and has 70% parts commonality with the M240, M249 and Mk 46. The USSOCOM has ordered 989 Mk 46 LMGs and 703 Mk 48s to date and plans to buy 272 Mk 46s and 256 Mk 48s in Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009.