The tripod looks like the M192. Sure looks a bit puny under that gun. The NZ army is starting to replace the 5.56 Minimi with the 7.62 Minimi, with a number of those tripods as part of the deal.Originally Posted by Fuchs
The use of sandbags is not uncommon with the L7A2 SFMG either. I suppose a light tripod with a few empty sandbags is easier to hump around than a sufficiently heavy tripod, but I imagine that if this gun is to see serious application in the sustained fire role, this tripod may leave a bit to be desired. For the poor No2 carrying it I hope I’m wrong. Compost’s remarks on the light barrel also seem warranted for the same reason.
It appears to me that they want to keep the weight and bulk of this new gun-tripod package down as much as possible to spark enough interest to gain some traction and get the ball rolling. But once forces are committed (if that will ever happen) than the weight may have to creep up if the gun is to be of much use for serious sustained fire. It looks like they are marketing it as a kind of lightweight-HMG (‘medium’ seems a bit optimistic) optimised for a light role. With the prohibitive weight of the ammo (in that role), that seems like a narrow scope of use, given the potential of this round.
The gun (or rather the calibre) certainly seems to fill a gap between 7.62 and 12.7 but I can’t see that gap being critical enough for forces to adopt this gun as a gap-filler. It would IMO only make sense to adopt is as a replacement for current GPMGs and HMGs. I don’t like their chances of pushing the well established MAG 58 and M2 out of the way. Same reasoning that applies to an intermediate between 5.56 and 7.62 not being forthcoming.
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