Browning M2 .50-Caliber Machine Gun
To listen to an old Marine 'Gunny,' you would think it was the most beautiful of women. The M2 .50-caliber machine gun is a favorite heavy weapon of Marines and ground troops everywhere. This heavy machine gun provides a base of fire for the rifle platoon and company. It forces the enemy to keep his head down and confronts him with a threat he must neutralize. While he is trying to knock out the damned machine gun, Marines can maneuver onto his flanks or close with his position. A heavy machine gun can shred dry-wall or wooden buildings, or unarmored vehicles. At short ranges and favorable angles it can even penetrate the side or rear plating of armored vehicles. This makes it a
The '50 cal' first entered service with the U.S. Army in 1919, too late for service in World War I. During the Second World War it was standard armament on American fighter and bomber aircraft, and was widely employed as an anti-aircraft weapon on every kind of ship and ground vehicle. The M2 is an automatic recoil-operated, air-cooled machine gun that weighs 84 1b/38 kg. Recoil-operated means that it uses an ingenious arrangement of levers, cams, and springs to capture part of the recoil energy to extract and eject the spent cartridge case, feed the next round, load it, and fire it. This cycle repeats as long as the gunner holds down the V-shaped trigger located between two hand grips at the rear of the gun. Release the trigger and a latch secures the mechanism in the 'open bolt' position, ready to fire again.
The .50-cal can be found in the turret of the AAV-7/LVTP-7 amphibious tractor, on the simple pintle mount on the HMMWV, and on the high-tech coaxial mount on the Avenger air-defense vehicle. The weapons platoon of a Marine rifle company fires it from a hefty 44-1b/20-kg tripod. It takes at least two Marines to carry the weapon, plus men to carry cans of ammunition. The ammunition is assembled into belts with reusable spring clips called 'disintegrating links,' which are stripped off by the gun's feeder mechanism. The rate of fire is 550 rounds per minute, and gunners are trained to fire short bursts to conserve ammunition. The theoretical maximum range is 4.22 mi/6.8 km, and the M2 has even been used for 'indirect fire' at high angles of elevation to create a 'fire-beaten zone' on the other side of a hill. In typical battlefield conditions the practical range is about 1.1 mi/1.8 km. The legendary lethality of the M2 derives from the heavy charge of propellant in the cartridge and the superb ballistic shape of the projectile, which has a distinctive 'boat tail.' There are several ammunition types. These include target-practice (TP), armor-piercing solid-shot, armor-piercing incendiary (API), and high-explosive (HE).
Over the years, many firms have produced the M2 on license from the holders of John M. Browning's original patent. The current contractor producing the M2 for the U.S. Department of Defense is Saco Defense, Inc., and the FY-1994 unit cost was $8,118.00. Its unique combination of range, lethality, durability, and simplicity guarantees that the M2 will soldier on well into the next century. In fact, the last Marine M2 gunner has probably not yet been born.
Mk 19 40mm Machine Gun, Mod 3
Back in the 1960s, deep in the swamps of the Mekong Delta where a well-concealed and heavily armed Viet Cong ambush might lurk around the next bend in the river, crews of U.S. Navy patrol craft discovered that .50-cal machine gun fire was often insufficient to break up an attack. They needed a weapon that could spew out a stream of explosive grenades to suppress enemy forces. To meet this need, the Navy developed the Mk 19, officially classed as a 'machine gun,' but actually an automatic grenade launcher. The Mk 19 had a long and troubled development cycle, earning the nickname 'Dover Dog,' after the Delaware arsenal where it was designed. After a series of modifications, it has proven itself in service with the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The Mk 19 is an extremely simple weapon using the 'blowback' principle. The barrel and receiver assembly recoil against a heavy spring, and as they rebound, the next round is loaded and fired. The weapon fires the same family of 40mm grenades as the M203 launcher attached to the M 16 rifle.
By itself the weapon weighs 72.5 lb/33 kg. It was designed to use the same tripod as the M2 .50-cal. machine gun, but is also found in the turret of the AAV-7/LVTP-7 amphibious tractor. The cyclic rate of fire is from 325 to 375 rounds per minute, but the practical rate of fire is about 40 rounds per minute in short bursts. To achieve the maximum range of 2.2 km/1.37 mi, you have to elevate the weapon to loft the grenades and forget about real accuracy. Practical range for flat-trajectory fire is about 1,500 m/4920 ft. There are several types of ammunition, assembled into disintegrating link belts and transported in metal canisters. The HEDP (high-explosive, dual- purpose) grenade will pierce 2 in./51mm of armor, and spray metal fragments that can kill within 5 m/ 16.4 ft and wound within 15 m/49.2 ft. Other types of ammunition include incendiary, smoke, and tear gas rounds. The Mk 19 is usually found in the weapons platoon of a rifle company and the weapons company of a rifle battalion. One Marine can load and fire the weapon, but it requires a team of three to four to carry it, along with a supply of grenades. It is manufactured by Saco Defense, and the 1994 unit cost was $13,758.00.
Mortars
Mortars are the company or battalion commander's own personal artillery. The mortar is a portable, cheap, and simple weapon: just a metal tube with a bipod elevating bracket and a heavy base plate. You assemble the weapon, aim the mortar at the target, and drop the mortar round down the barrel. The round strikes a firing pin at the bottom of the tube, and off it goes. Limitations of the mortar are its relatively short range and inaccuracy. But this old weapon is now gaining new respect, thanks to the development of precision guided ammunition.
Marines employ two different kinds of mortars. The M224, used in the heavy weapons platoon of the rifle company, is a 60mm weapon weighing only 46.5 lb/21 kg. Maximum range is 2.2 mi/3.5 km. A good crew can sustain a rate of fire of around twenty rounds per minute. The other model, the M252, is used in the heavy weapons company of the infantry battalion. An 81mm weapon, it is based on a 1970s British design, weighs 89 lb/40 kg, and has a maximum range of 3.5 mi/5.6 km. The sustained rate of fire is sixteen rounds per minute. There is a wide variety of ammunition types in each caliber, including high-explosive, smoke, and incendiary rounds. High-explosive rounds can be fitted either with an impact fuse or a proximity fuse that detonates at a preset altitude, showering the target with fragments.
M198 155mm Towed Howitzer
This big gun is one of the more controversial weapons in the Marine arsenal. While it is the Marines' primary field artillery piece, the Corps leadership feels that the M 198 is simply too big and too heavy. Also, it takes up too much space on amphibious lift ships, and in firing position it is too vulnerable, especially when a quantity of ammunition is stacked near the gun. In addition, the M198 has a high center of gravity, which makes it prone to tipping over and being difficult to handle. On the other hand, it uses standard, widely available 155mm ammunition
