The MG3 i.e. the Maschinengewehr 3 is a general purpose machine gun designed in West Germany by Rheinmetall in the 1966. The design of the MG3 is based on the MG42, an earlier universal machine gun. The MG3 continues to be used and manufactured till date in more than 30 different countries such as Italy, Spain, Pakistan, Greece, Sudan, Iran and Turkey.

The MG3 is an air-cooled machine gun that is based on the short-recoil, roller locked mechanism. It is chambered for the NATO 7.62x52 mm round and has a peak firing-rate of 1,150 rounds per minute. It has a maximum range of 800 meters and is a fed by a 50-round non-disintegrating belt. Some versions also use a 100-round belt. The MG 3 weighs 11.5 Kg without the tripod and 27.5 Kg when mounted on the tripod.

The MG3 has its roots in the earlier MG42. After the Second World War, the Bundeswehr requested the Rheinmetall arms factory to design a new machine using the standard NATO cartridges. This led to the design of the MG1. Other variants of the MG1 were also designed. These were designated MG1A1, MG1A2 and MG1A3. The earlier MG 42 machine guns were converted to use 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge and renamed as MG 2. The MG3 was an improvisation of the MG1A3 and featured an improved feed mechanism, an anti-aircraft sight and a new ammo-box. Parts of the MG3 and its variants can be easily interchanged with the MG 42 and vice-versa.

The MG 3 has several variants. These are:

>> MG 3E: The MG 3E is a variant of the MG 3 which has several design variations. It is lighter that the MG 3 by 1.3 Kgs. It entered into service in the late 1970s.

>> MG 3A1: This is a variant of the MG 3 designed for fixed mount armour use.

>> MG 42/59: This is an export version of the MG 3 with a slightly lowered rate of fire. It is being used by other European forces such as Austria.

Like its predecessor—the MG34, the MG3 is an excellent general purpose machine gun. Though the design is more than half-a-century old, the MG3 is still ranked as one of the best general purpose machine gun available even today.

The MG 3 is the standard secondary weapon of the Bundeswehr. It is used on most of the German armoured vehicles and also as an infantry weapon. In addition it is also used by a number of other countries such as Canada, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain, Poland and Turkey.

The MG3 is being slowly removed from service by the German Armed Forces. There are plans to completely phase it out of service by the year 2012. A replacement for the MG 3 will be introduced in 2011.

The Maschinengewehr 42 or just MG42 is a machine gun designed in Nazi Germany that entered military service in the year 1942. It replaced the MG34 general purpose machine gun though both of them saw almost equal service till the end of the Second World War.

The MG42 has its origins in the earlier MG34. The MG34 was the first general purpose machine gun and was very effective in terms of firepower. However, it was susceptible to dirt and was costly to manufacture. This led the Germans to develop an alternative to the MG34. The MG39 was designed by Ernst Grunow. Strangely, Grunow had no prior knowledge of designing guns. However, he attended a machine gunner’s course and interacted with soldiers to learn key concepts which he incorporated into the design of the MG39. The newer design was not only simpler to manufacture, it was also less expensive.

The MG39 was thoroughly tested and some changes were made to it. The new design was designated as MG42 and production began in the year 1942. Contracts to manufacture the MG42 were awarded to several companies and by 1945, more than 400,000 units were manufactured.

The MG42 was both reliable and durable. At the same time, its operation was also very simple. However the most effective feature of the MG42 was its immense rate of fire. With the rate of firing ranging between 1200 and 1500-rounds per minute, the gun was one of fastest single-barrelled machine guns to be ever designed. There were other contemporary designs with similar firepower, but they couldn’t equate the MG42 because of its belt-feed mechanism and quick-change barrel system.

The MG42 used a roller-locked, short recoil gas assist mechanism to operate. It also fired from an open-bolt and had high recoil. For this reason, it had to be properly seated on its bipod before firing. The gun was designed to use the 7.92x57mm Mauser round and was effective to a range of around 1000 meters.

The MG42 weighed around 11.6 Kg and was comparatively light and mobile than other contemporary machine guns. The barrel of the gun was also thinner and this caused it to get heated much faster. However, it could be replaced very easily within seconds by an expert machine gunner.

Several variants of the MG42 were developed in the later years. One such variant was the MG45. This variant was developed by taking material shortages of the war into consideration. This variant featured several design variations and has a rate of fire of around 1,350 rounds per minute. However, only ten units of the MG45 were ever built.

The Americans also tried to make clones of the MG42. The T24 machine gun was based on the MG42 and was chambered for the .30-26 cartridge. However, faulty design led to the failure of the project and it had to be abandoned midway.

After the war, several countries manufactured variants of the MG42. Examples include the MG74 (manufactured by Austria) and the M53 (manufactured by Yugoslavia under license). Yugoslavian M53s were exported to Iraq in fair numbers in the 1980s. In the recent years, M53s saw action in the Gulf wars.

The MG43, or the Maschinengewehr 34, was a general purpose machine gun designed in Nazi Germany. It was adopted by the German Army in the year 1934 and deployed in substantial numbers the following year. The performance of the MG34 was comparable to other medium machine guns of that time.

The MG34 was designed to use the 7.92x57mm Mauser round. Early versions of the gun were capable of firing 600 to 1000 rounds per minute. However, in the later versions the rate of fire was decreased to 800 to 900 rounds per minute. The MG 43 used either 50/200-round belts or a 75-round drum magazine based feed mechanism. Similar to other machine guns of that time, the barrel of the gun could be easily replaced to prevent overheating during continuous firing.

Throughout the 1930s, the MG34 remained in use by the German Army as a anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. Though a newer machine gun—the MG42—was designed with the intention of replacing the MG34, it was never manufactured on the required scale and thus the MG34 saw widespread deployment until the end of the Second World War.

The design of the MG34 was based on an earlier machine gun called the Solothurn 1930. Design enhancements included the addition of an air-cooling shroud around the barrel, changes to the feed mechanism and adjustment of the rate of fire. Once the MG34 was designed, it was immediately accepted by the German Army and pressed into service.

Though the MG34 had many innovative features and was used to great effect, it was expensive to manufacture. The manufacturing process was too resource-intensive and so the requirements of the expanding armed forces in the light of the war couldn’t be met. Despite superior firepower and advantages it offered, the MG34 has some drawbacks that proved to be costly. One such drawback was its tendency to get jammed in the muddy conditions of trenches.

The MG34 spawned several variants and also influenced the design of other guns. Notable of these variants are the MG34/41 or MG34S, the MG34 Panzerlauf and the MG81. The MG34/41 was a variant which had higher firing rates of about 1200 rpm and higher weight. Limited numbers of this variant were manufactured. The MG34 Panzerlauf was the version that equipped most German tanks of that era to be used as secondary armament. This variant had a thicker barrel-shroud and lacked the butt-stock. The third variant—the MG81—was designed primarily as an aircraft mounted machine gun.

The MG34 was extensively used throughout the Second World War by the Germans. However, after Germany lost the war, production was stopped. In total approximately 354,000 MG34 units were manufactured in between 1934 and 45.