Barrett M240LW Prototype

[greentips]

6lb off the regular M240/Mag58/C6 -pretty interesting.

4lb of the reduction comes off the receiver. Just by looking at it, it looks like they machine the receiver plate and all the details on it from bar stock, instead of riveting pieces and pieces of additional plates on the sheet metal receiver. Because they don't have to rivet anything on the receiver plate, this probably allows them to reduce the thickness of the receiver. We will just have to see this way of making receiving will hold up for a GPMG with a very high round count.

The rest of the weight reduction seems to be coming off the barrel by fluting.

 

[bfiles]

oh man I soooo wish we could get thpse up here, even if it is a semi

 

[Ty_Guy]

Is the stock a polymer? not wood?

 

[theweatherman]

Looks like they soaked the barrel in oil to try and keep the heat down as it is fired... wouldn't surprise me considering how thin it is.

 

[bellero]

HK already improved the old MAG 58 a few years back.

 

[Greg_VP]

Interesting how they approached lightening this weapon, as opposed to the M240L, which appears to still use similar riveted construction as the M240 but utilizes titanium.

I wonder what the future is on this MG, seeing as how the M240L is currently fielded.

 

[Thorvald]

I would have much preferred to carry that instead of the pig of a C6 I had to lug around ;-)

 

[Armedsask]

Interesting how they approached lightening this weapon, as opposed to the M240L, which appears to still use similar riveted construction as the M240 but utilizes titanium.

I wonder what the future is on this MG, seeing as how the M240L is currently fielded.

I was just going to say I thought they lightened it with extensive use of titanium. Didn't realize there were two companies making lighter versions.

The Barret would likely be cheaper. Titanium is expensive to machine.

 

[Raytheon]

Very cool.

General Dynamics has re-chambered the M240 in .338 Norma Magnum.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2012/05/16/338-nm-lightweight-medium-machine-gun-lwmmg/

It looks like it is based on the FN MAG / M240 machine gun with a new fire control system, AR-14 pistol grip, M4-style stock and quad picatinny rails.

The .338 Norma Magnum's performance is very similar to that of the much more popular .338 Lapua Magnum. The .338 NM has a slight advantage in that when loaded with a .300 grain Sierra HPBT MatchKing projectile, its overall length is shorter than the .338 LM loaded with the same bullet. This is why General Dynamics would have chosen this round over the more popular .338 LM.

The gun itself weighs 24 lbs. This is a lot lighter than the M240B and about 1.7 lbs heavier than the new M240L. The .338 NM cartridges are a lot larger and heavier than 7.62mm cartridges.

This gun makes a lot of sense to me. The ballistics of the .338 NM are far superior to the 7.62mm. At longer ranges it has ballistics similar to the .50 BMG without the need to carry around a M2 + bipod.

I like the idea of the weight reduction more but the caliber change is intriguing.

 

[fireball]

Belt fed, full auto .338 NM??

That's my kind of full retard !!