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Meet the highest casualty producing weapon in the entire US Army’s regular infantry arsenal. The M249 belt fed Squad Automatic 5.56 x 45 mm Machine gun. In this video we’re going to take a look at its evolution as a weapon and its use in various combat situations then finally what the future next gen 249 could look like.

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Where did the need for this weapon originally come from? Well we can trace its roots all the way back to the year 1965 and the US Military was unhappy with the belt fed machines they were using at the time, the M60 and the M2 Browning. Both of these solutions technically required a crew of two in order to properly operate.

The military was acting like goldilocks here. They wanted a belt fed machine gun that was just right, not too big, not too small. They were looking for a middle child to add to the family and the M249 was just the problem child to fit that role. Just like a failing marriage, bringing in another child always solves the problem.