Board Thread:Forum Games/@comment-31503594-20171013121527/@comment-30868172-20171013184709

This is a  7.62×51mm NATO version of the Mk 46, used by USSOCOM, when a heavier cartridge is required. [56]  It is officially classified as an LWMG (Light Weight Machine Gun) and was developed as a replacement for the  Mk 43 Mod 0/1. The M60 based machine guns are a great deal more portable than the heavier M240 based designs used elsewhere in the US military in the infantry medium machine gun role. However, the M60 based designs have a long history of insufficient reliability. Trials conducted through the mid-1990s led the US Army to replace its M60 with the M240B  GPMGs. The M240B, however, weighs in at ≈27.5 lb and is about 49" long with the standard barrel. NAVSPECWAR was reluctant to give up the increased portability of the M60 (≈22.5 lb, 37.7" OAL with the shortest "Assault Barrel") designs in spite of the M240's increased reliability. A request was put in for a new machine gun in 2001, and FN responded with a scaled-up version of the M249 weighing in at ≈18.5 lb with an OAL of ≈39.5". The new design achieved much better reliability than the M60-based weapons while bettering its light weight and maintaining the same manual of arms as the already in-use M249. USSOCOM was slated to begin receiving deliveries of the new gun in August 2003. [57]