The M2 machine gun or Browning. While similar to Browning's M Browning machine gun , which was chambered for the. The design has had many designations; the official U. It has been used against infantry, light armored vehicles, watercraft, light fortifications, and low-flying aircraft. The gun has been used extensively as a vehicle weapon and for aircraft armament by the United States since the s.
It is the primary heavy machine gun of NATO countries and has been used by many other countries as well. The M2HB heavy barrel is manufactured in the U. Ordnance , [ 17 ] and FN Herstal for sale to the U. Machine guns were heavily used in World War I, and weapons of larger than rifle caliber began appearing on both sides of the conflict. The larger rounds were needed to pierce the armor that was being introduced to the battlefield, both on the ground and in the air.
Germany introduced the Junkers J. I aircraft, whose armor could render ineffective aircraft machine guns that used conventional rifle ammunition such as the.
Pershing asked for a larger-caliber machine gun. Around July , John Browning started redesigning his. Winchester worked on the cartridge, which was a scaled-up version of the. Winchester initially added a rim to the cartridge because the company wanted to use the cartridge in an anti-tank rifle, but Pershing insisted the cartridge be rimless.
Cartridge improvements were promised. While the. The Efforts by Browning and Fred T. Moore resulted in the water-cooled,. These guns were used experimentally from until They had lightweight barrels and the ammunition fed only from the left side.
