Browning M2HB

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2009 12:40 Written by Administrator Thursday, 02 July 2009 03:27

The Browning M2HB or the Browning .50 Calibre Machine Gun, as it is also known, is heavy machine gun developed by the famed gun-designer John Browning in the United States towards the end of the First World War. The M2HB is highly effective against armoured vehicles, boats, small fortifications and low-flying aircraft.

The design of the Browning M2Hb is based on earlier machine gun model called the M1917. In other words, the M2HB is an upgraded version of the .30 M1917 which has been chambered for use with the .50 BMG. The M2 is an air-cooled gun which makes operates using the short-recoil mechanism. Different models of the M2 have different rates of fire. The M2HB can fire up to 450-600 rounds per minute. However, in actual practice it is rarely fired at that rate as doing so would cause wear and tear to the gun barrel.

The M2HB weighs approximately 38 Kg. Along with the tripod it weighs about 58 Kg. It measures approximately 1650 mm with the barrel being 1143 mm in length. The muzzle velocity of the M2 2,910 is feet per second. It has an effective range of 1.8 kilometres.

The M2 saw widespread use during the Second World War. It was mainly used against aircraft and vehicles because of immense penetrating power. The M2 was capable of puncturing the plates and fuel tanks of armoured vehicles. In addition, a variant of it was also used in plane such as the P-47 Thunderbolt and the B-25 Mitchell Bomber.

During the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the M2 also found use as a long-range sniper rifle most notably by the famous US Marine Corps Sniper Carlos Hathcock. In fact, Hathcock set a record for the longest sniper kill at 2,250 meters using the M2. This record broken was only in the recent years in 2002 in Afghanistan.

Several variants of the M2 gun have been developed. Some of the notable ones are:

>> M2 E-50: This is a variant of the M2HB that features a quick to replace barrel and several other improvements. This is a developmental version and is also referred under other designations such as “M2E2” or “M2A1”.

>> AN/M2 and AN/M3: These are variants of the M2 that were designed to be fired from aircraft. These were designed during the Second World War and operated electrically using solenoid-triggers. The AN/M3 was a faster version of the AN/M2. Other variants in this class include the XM296/M296 which was designed to be fired from helicopters.

>> XM213/M213, XM218, GAU-15/A, GAU-16/A and GAU-18/A: These variants are improvised versions of the M2 gun to be used as door mounted guns on helicopters.

The Browning M2HB has been in service with many nations and has been employed in a numbers of wars like World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Falklands War, and others. In the recent years, it saw widespread deployment in the Second Gulf war.