light machine gun

A type of machine gun designed to be operated by a single person, with or without an assistant.

Early LMG designs were typically magazine-fed and they fire full-powered rifle cartridge, such as the .303 British Bren. Modern post-World War II designs fire intermediate round, and they can be either belt-fed or magazine-fed (e.g. the 5.56×45mm NATO M249 saw). They are also known as the squad automatic weapon.

Some LMGs are based on the existing service (assault) rifle, such as the RPK.

List of light machine guns

• Lahti-Saloranta M/26

See also

• List of Weapons

This tag implicates gun (learn more).

The following tags implicate this tag: rpk (learn more).