“The Army recognized the M240L 7.62mm Medium Machine Gun among the 2010 Army Greatest Inventions (AGI) during an awards ceremony at the Association of the United States Army Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., Oct. 11.” And what did they do to the standard 240B model to warrant the honor? They took a few years to figure out how to machine titanium replacement parts and coat them to shave about five pounds of the gun’s total weight. And that means a helluva lot when soldiers are dragging them over mountains in Afghanistan. Ain’t she a beaut?
It’s amazing that the M240’s predecessor the FN-MAG was designed and started production approximately the same time as the M60, but we choose to go with the M60 instead.
Agreed. Been reading the gun mags for decades & every head-to-head comparison named the FN-MAG the superior gun. Shocking it took so long to finally adopt it.
Can anyone say CNC Technology… this is just the start (my humble opinion) of handling exotic metals for highly complex parts with tight tolerances.
It is a beautiful gun. With the way economic, political, social, and other trends are moving I wonder if the M240L will ever be used domestically on American citizens.
This was my first thought with that air-burst grenade launcher, the XM-25 (I think).
Are they normally silver, or is that just to show off the Titanium?
My unit is supposed to be getting these to replace our 240Bs. Lower weight sounds great to me, but I’m worried how much accuracy will suffer with the shorter barrel.
The shorter barrel is so that more soldiers will take, and hopefully use them indoors – they’re trying to generalize that role. I still don’t see that as happening with how bulky the weapon is (which is one of the reasons the Marines opted for the H&K M416 to replace the 249). I’m more worried about felt recoil when the bipod isn’t deployed…
I’m pretty interested in Barrett’s solution. I read up on it a couple months ago, basically milling the receiver as one piece, which removes the excess overlapping material needed to rivet it together, the rivets, a redesigned charging handle.
Removes as much weight as the M240L without having to shorten the barrel, which allows it to stay adapted for the support by fire role, especially in open terrain.
Ahhh, I actually got to shoot one of these back on the aircraft carrier I was stationed on. Even though it was the only time I ever fired it, and it was only 25 rounds, that was still one of the coolest things ever. What wasn’t cool was when I had to carry that thing from one side of the flight deck to the other under the island during a early morning Singapore monsoon.
It’s still almost 6 pounds heavier then the PKM. Mind you the PKM’s 7.62×54 ammo & the box it comes in adds more weight to the soldier.
I was at the convention my dad made something else that was in the top ten inventions. My dad is friends with the group that invented the m40l, i got to hold it. Really cool place guns and tanks everywhere 🙂
Lightening it and making it shorter makes it jumpable for Airborne operations. Unfortunately, we already have this…….it’s called a MK 48. And it’s a better weapon overall.