Built since the 1920s, the reliable, powerful, air-cooled .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Browning Machine Gun (aka. "Ma Deuce") is still one of the world's most effective heavy machine guns. It can be carried by a team of soldiers, or mounted on vehicles and aircraft. Despite its age, its combination of reliability, durability, and kick-butt firepower has made it one of the most requested weapons in the Iraqi theater of war, and it remains popular around the world. Modern alternatives like FN's M3M/GAU-21 have been introduced, and the XM307/312 remains a future possibility, but the M2 remains, as one of our correspondents put it, "the mounted lance of the US cavalry." The USA has even had to ramp up .50 cal ammunition production, in order to keep up.Ma Deuce: the M2 Heavy Machine Gun
The M2HB crew-served 12.7mm/ .50 cal machine gun features a rate of fire of 450-600 rounds per minute, a maximum effective range of 2,000 yards (1,830m), and a maximum range of 7,440 Yards (6,800m). Muzzle velocity with M33 is 2,910 Feet Per Second (890 Meters Per Second). As has become standard in modern machine guns, it is air-cooled and belt fed. The complete gun weighs 84 pounds (38.2 kg), not counting any tripods or mounts, with a barrel weight of 24 Pounds (10.88 kg).
The M2's slow rate of fire is not necessarily a disadvantage. Though it limits the gun's anti-air effectiveness, it makes the weapon more controllable against ground targets -- and has even led to combat situations where the M2 has been successfully employed in one-shot sniper mode using a telescopic sight. Discovery of the M2 sniper option is widely credited to legendary USMC sniper Carlos "White Feather" Hathcock in Vietnam.
The M2HB comes in 2 variants, fixed and flex. The fixed version is generally used on tanks, and has different mountings and a different trigger mechanism.
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has also developed an M2E2 version, after 25 years of experience manufacturing the M2HB machine gun for the U.S. Department of Defense. The enhanced M2E2 provides new features and design improvements, including a quick-change barrel system, flash hider, and and a manual trigger block safety. It is currently in production.
The Lightweight .50 Caliber (12.7mm) Machine Gun (LW50MG) is a more developmental variant. The LW50MG is expected to have significantly less recoil, and to be lighter than current weapons. It is also expected to demonstrate increased accuracy and lethality in combat, though an LW50MG that simply maintained the M2HB's marks in those areas could still be valuable.