RED DIAMOND: GP Machine Guns

Tuesday we reviewed the world of light machine guns -- the equivalent of our Squad Automatic Weapon. Today we get to a rifle platoon's most casualty-producing weapon - the general-purpose machine gun.

The fact is, on the battlefield of the next LSCO engagement, our ability to achieve overmatch with the base of fire of maneuver will be vital. This is what Soldiers in infantry squads will be up against.

Note the GP machine gun this is not the same as a medium machine gun. The latter classification of weapons basically ended with World War II.

To take a deeper dive on weapons doctrine, check out the WEG here. To learn more about the DDOD Red Diamond Academy, scroll down of click here. (Note: Due to issues with the WEG, two images for today's feature were downloaded from Wikipedia.com).

Weapon		Effective Range	Max Range	Rate of Fire	Armor Penetration	Ammo
M240B		800m bipod 1100m tripod	3725m	550-650 RPM		7.62x51mm
K12 (S. Korea)		800m	NA	650-950 RPM		7.62x51mm
Type 73* (NORK)		N/A	N/A	650-700		7.62x54mm
PKM (Russia)		1000m	3800m	650 RPM	10mm	7.62x54mm
TYPE 67 (China)		800m	1000m	650-700 RPM	NA	7.62×54mm

* We also counted the Type 73 as a light machine gun.

About The DDOD's Red Diamond Academy:

Threat capabilities: It’s something we don’t look at enough in the Army, and especially in the reserve components. We first noticed this gap at Maneuver Captain’s Career Course. The MCCC entrance exam puts a lot of emphasis on threat weapons. But, students quickly find just how little exposure they get to these concepts on drill weekends. In fact, that knowledge gap created the first kernel of an idea that became the DDOD.

Our analysis focuses on the key battlefield characteristics, such as Range, rate of fire, and ammunition. Much more than that is a lot to remember in an "over lunch read" that the DDOD is set-up for. Also, we're limiting our comments to what matters on the battlefield. That your opponent has a folding stock is less important than the effective range.

We’re using data pulled from the WEG – The World Wide Equipment Guide. That resource is hosted by TRADOC, thus falls generally into the concept of doctrine. Per our policy, it is not CAC restricted, and is available to the public.

We call this, the Red Diamond Academy (see FM 1-02.2 if you don’t know why). US equivalent weapons are in blue, threat weapons, appropriately, are in red. As always, italics added for our emphasis, and […] indicates we cut out stuff we thought was fluff. And, as always: you’re smarter reading the pub (or web site, in this case) yourself to be exactly sure.