M249 Squad Automatic Weapon

Rare card · No. 20898

The M249 SAW, formally as the Light Machine Gun, 5.56 mm, M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, is the United States Armed Forces adaptation of the Belgian FN Minimi, a light machine gun designed and manufactured by FN Herstal. The M249 SAW is manufactured in the United States by the subsidiary FN Manufacturing, LLC (FN America), a company in Columbia, South Carolina. It was adopted in 1982 by the U.S. Armed Forces to address the lack of sustained automatic fire capability at the squad level and has been widely used since. The M249 SAW combines the rate of fire of a machine gun with the accuracy and portability of an assault rifle. The M249 SAW is a gas operated and air-cooled light machine gun. It features a quick-change barrel, enabling the operator to rapidly replace an overheated or obstructed barrel. It can be paired with a folding bipod attached to the front of the gas block, or attached to an M192 lightweight ground mount tripod. The M249 SAW features a dual-feeding mechanism, configured...

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