General-purpose Machine Gun - Notable Examples

Notable Examples

• German Maschinengewehr 34 or MG 34: air-cooled, belt-fed and had the ability to be mounted on a variety of fixtures and employed in several different roles. Notably, the MG 34 remained the standard co-axial weapon for Nazi German vehicles through the Second World War. The MG34 was successful enough during use in the opening stages of the Second World War that the concept of the GPMG was adopted in many other post-WWII armies.
• German MG 42: the MG 34's immediate successor in Wehrmacht service—and the most versatile and effective machine gun design of the Second World War.
• German MG3, a direct descendant of the MG 42, is still in service with the German Army and others.
• Belgian FN MAG, the most widely used GPMG among NATO and other western armies.
• South African Vektor SS-77.
• Russian PK/PKM family of multi-purpose machine-guns, widely exported.
• People's Republic of China, the Type 67 and later improved models.
• American M60, supplemented by the M240 (FN MAG variant) in US service.