I ran across the belt-fed machine gun mentioned in a recent NDIA poster in the RD USA booth.
Designed under a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) with United States Special Operations Command as a demonstrator to improve the capabilities of the current Mk48 Machine Gun, the LMG-A-GP from MG Technologies has dropped the weight to about 15 lbs. The weight is dependent on selected barrel length with quick change barrels available in 12.5″ to 18″.
Like the Mk48 it is chambered in 7.62 NATO, but convertible to 6.5 Creedmoor and 300 BLK. The operating system relies on continuous recoil with no rearward bolt carrier impact on the receiver.
While it wasn’t designed specifically for SOCOM’s current Lightweight Machine Gun – Assault program, it certainly could be a contender.
For more info, contact info@mgtech-usa.com.
“It is chambered in 7.62 NATO, but convertible to 6.5 Creedmoor and 300 BLK.”
300 Blackout? Did I catch that right or is that a typo?
It is not a typo. The LMG-A-GP is convertible from 7.62 NATO / 6.5CM down to 5.56 NATO / 300 Blackout by changing the feed cover/tray, barrel, and bolt/carrier.
I’m not questioning the convertibility, Sig’s XM250 is convertible between full size and intermediate calibers per Jason St. John. The 300 BLK part I do find curious though…if it had said 5.56 NATO it would make more sense to me.
There was a mention of a Short Range Assault Machine Gun in one of the posters several years ago. It defined it as Belt-fed 300m effective range specifically mentioning .300blk or 5.56×30 mars . I haven’t been able to find the poster( topic has come up several times) , but I’m pretty sure I saw it here or a MWI Subterrranean presentation and just failed to save it. So it’s not a made up requirement, maybe a deprioritized one.
There were SAWs in .300 BLK demonstrated to a couple of units that use that caliber. As far as I know, nothing was ever procured. Considering how
Much trouble SOCOM is having with .300 ammo, I can’t see it gaining any traction.
Honestly surprised that we haven’t seen Fightlite try it. 300 ammo has suffered since it was the whisper. The case itself and the case capacity is “Finnicky” to work with. You can build some decent supers and they work for crap in a different rifle. Sub’s are all over the place from 147/150 to 280 and more about 9 to 10 gr of the right powder. 15 years after introduction you’d still only see 2 or 3 workable loads but mainly 9.5gr of H110 with a 220smk.
SSD, have they commented specifically on the “issues” that have arisen with 300 BLK or 6.5 CM ammo for SOCOM?
Procurement issues.
SSD, any idea which barrel length is associated with the 15lb weight? Hopefully they aren’t pulling an HK, advertising a decent weight reduction that applies to the shortest barrel.
It certainly looks like they’ve done some interesting stuff, and it seems like a better mouse trap thank a Mk48, but it does seem to lack a lot of features that it’s likely competitors, like Sig, have.
Honestly surprised that we haven’t seen Fightlite try it. 300 ammo has suffered since it was the whisper. The case itself and the case capacity is “Finnicky” to work with. You can build some decent supers and they work for crap in a different rifle. Sub’s are all over the place from 147/150 to 280 and more about 9 to 10 gr of the right powder. 15 years after introduction you’d still only see 2 or 3 workable loads but mainly 9.5gr of H110 with a 220smk.