America dazzled the world with its high technology weaponry during the Gulf War. Smart bombs, cruise missiles, night vision goggles, and a plethora of other ultra-sophisticated weapons made the victory look easy.

In fact, after watching and listening to the media accounts, one could quickly come to the conclusion that the American military's punch and power is based on these ultra-sophisticated weapons.

The impression of the high tech military is encouraged by the military itself, which sets high recruiting standards under the philosophy that only the most intelligent, skilled individuals can handle the ultra- s ophisti c ated weapons in the military's arsenal. The military certainly does have some high tech weapons, but they are operated by a relatively small proportion of Americas warriors. One of the biggest occupational fields is the infantry and, although they too have some sophisticated weapons, one of their primary weapons is a machine gun that was built in the 1930s.

The basic heavy machine gun used by the infantry is the Browning M2 Heavy Barrel (HB) Flexible .50 caliber machine gun. It was developed in the early 1930s to replace a similar but more cumbersome version of the same weapon which had been adopted by the army in 1921.

The M2, developed by John Browning, is an air-cooled, recoil-operated machine gun that fires a linked .50 caliber round at a rate of 450 - 750 rounds per minute and that can reach a maximum range of 4.5 miles. The gun is 65" long and weighs 83.3 lbs. It can be mounted on a tripod for ground use or on a variety of pintles for vehicle mounting. The machine gun can be set to feed from either side, so that two can be mounted in tandem. The spent casing is ejected through the bottom of the gun. Although the weapon has a relatively slow rate of fire, its hitting power makes it a feared weapon.

The hitting power and other unique features of the machine gun have caused the infantry to also adopt the M2 as a sniper rifle. When the weapon was designed, a single shot feature was included so that gun crews could use it as a spotting rifle for other machine guns or weapons. The infantry quickly found that, by mounting a scope, or, more recently, a night vision sight onto the machine gun, they had a very effective sniper rifle. It can hit a target so far away that the individuals near the target will not hear the "crackle" of the report.

The machine gun can be mounted on many vehicles, and is generally the most widely used mounted weapon. It serves as the primary anti-aircraft protection for support troops, truck convoys, and logistics bases. The coaxial machine gun is used on many tanks and armored cars and adaptations of it have been used in aircraft and helicopters.

Battle Briefs

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The Spirit of the Bayonet
The Browning M2 Heavy Machine Gun
The Battle of Trebia (218BC: Hannibal)