ULTIMAX 100 LIGHT MACHINE GUN

The Ultimax 100 is a Singaporean 5.56mm light machine gun, developed by the Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS, now ST Kinetics) by a team of engineers under the guidance of American firearms designer L. James Sullivan. The gun is extremely accurate due to its low recoil.

Work on a new light support weapon for the Singapore Army began in 1978. The weapon is produced by CIS (presently STK Singapore Technologies Kinetics), initially in the Mark 1 version, later the Mark 2, and currently, in the Mark 3 and Mark 4 variant. The Ultimax 100 (also called the U 100) is used in significant numbers by the armed forces of Singapore, Croatia and the Philippines.

M249 LIGHT MACHINE GUN (LMG)

The M249 light machine gun (LMG), 5.56 mm, is an American version of the Belgian FN Minimi, a light machine gun manufactured by the Belgian company FN Herstal (FN). The M249 is manufactured in the United States and is widely used by the U.S. Armed Forces. The weapon was introduced in 1984.

The M249 is gas operated and air cooled. It has a quick-change barrel, allowing the gunner to rapidly replace an overheated or jammed barrel. A folding bipod is attached near the front of the gun, though an M192 LGM tripod is also available. It can be fed from both linked ammunition and STANAG magazines.

M249s have seen action in every major conflict involving the United States since the 1989 invasion of Panama. Soldiers are generally satisfied with the weapon's performance, though there have been reports of clogging with dirt and sand

NEGEV LIGHT MACHINE GUN

The Negev is 5.56 mm light machine gun, developed by Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) of Ramat HaSharon (now Israel Weapon Industries). Design work on this new indigenous firearm began in 1985, and it was officially adopted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in 1997.

MACHINE GUNS AND ITS FUNCTION

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute.

In United States gun law, machine gun is a term of art for any fully automatic firearm, and also for any component or part that will modify an existing firearm such that it functions as a fully automatic firearm.

 

 

Machine guns are generally categorized as sub-machine guns, machine guns, or autocannons. Sub-machine guns are designed to be portable automatic weapons for personal defense or short range combat, and are intended to be fired while being hand held. Submachine guns use small pistol caliber rounds. A proper machine gun is often portable to a certain degree, but is generally used when mounted on a stand or fired from the ground on a bipod. Light machine guns can be fired hand held like a rifle, but the gun is more effective when fired from a prone position. Proper machine guns use larger caliber rifle rounds. The difference between machine guns and autocannons is based on caliber, with autocannons using calibers larger than 16 mm.

 
Another factor is whether the gun fires conventional rounds or explosive rounds. Guns firing large-caliber explosive rounds are generally considered either autocannons or automatic grenade launchers ("grenade machine guns"). By contrast with the other two categories (sub-machine guns and autocannons), machine guns (like rifles) tend to share the characteristic of a very high ratio of barrel length to caliber (a long barrel for a small caliber); indeed, a true machine gun is essentially a fully automatic rifle, and the boundaries between the two are often blurred. Often, the criterion for a machine gun as opposed to an automatic rifle is considered to be the presence of a quick change barrel or other cooling system.