#M249SAW

It’s time to relocate to Germany to take a look at the M249 Light Machine Gun in action. Yes, this is what TFB’s Photo Of The Day is all about! Above you see a U.S. Soldier, assigned to the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team-Airborne (173rd IBCT ABN), as he lets the M249 go. This firearm is also known as the M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), and it fires the 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition. It operates using a gas piston system. The images are from Exercise Saber Junction 22 at Hohenfels Training Area, Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, 2022.

Norway’s Armed Forces have been using the FN Minimi Light Machine Gun (in 5,56×45 NATO) since the late 80s. Recently they awarded FN Herstal another contract to supply up to 4,000 FN Minimi 7.62 Mk3 Light Machine Guns, a movement up in caliber as you can see. In this Photo Of The Day, we see the Telemark Battalion conducting a live-fire exercise with various firearms of the Norwegian Army.

Photo Of The Day: The M249 Light Machine Gun is made in the United States by FN Manufacturing LLC in Columbia, South Carolina. Here we can see it in action in the exercise Cold Response, spitting out those 5.56mm bullets at a high rate of fire.

Photojournalism is the process of storytelling using the medium of photography as your main storytelling device. While a journalist will use their pen and paper to tell stories, a photojournalist will use their camera to capture the visual representation of a story. In our Photo Of The Day, we have paratroopers assigned with the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. They’re preparing to push forward as they train with their Polish Allies assigned to the Polish 19th Mechanized Brigade during a combined arms live-fire exercise in southeastern Poland, on March 17.

Today we have pictures from the Russian-Pakistani Friendship shooting competition from 2018. The results were a draw, but we’re left with images of interesting firearms.

Suppressive fire is the topic of the day in our Photo Of The Day. Above we can see a U.S. Marine with the 1st Marine Division as he’s providing just that. The event was called Marine Air Ground Task Force Warfighting Exercise 3-21 and took place on the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, in May of this year.

FN Herstal recently announced a new Ultralight Machine Gun called  EVOLYS. But the focus of today’s Photo Of The Day is the FN Minimi (seen above) and the Heckler & Koch HK416.

The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon or SAW is one of the most iconic crew-served weapons in current use.  Designed in 1976 by FN Herstal, the M249 SAW has seen use in the Gulf War, Somalia, and the current War on Terror.  The design has been modified slightly over the years to include mission-specific variants like the 249 Para, and Mk46.  Thanks to an invite from Jake at 1911 Syndicate I was able to shoot this classic crew-served weapon, but with a new SAW-specific silencer.

Much digital ink has been spilled over the last several years regarding the US Army’s NGSW ( Next Generation Squad Weapons) Program. Most of the rifles/carbines and machine guns currently employed by America’s soldiers are not particularly modern, by any stretch. Today’s M4A1 has seen some notable updates and improvements, to be sure, but at its core it’s still based on the same M16 that first entered service in the Vietnam era, more than half a century ago. The 5.56×45mm NATO round it uses has come under fire from time to time, for being perhaps a bit too anemic for its purpose. This same cartridge is used by the belt-fed M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), which was designed in the ’70s and has been in service since 1984. Though some update attempts have been explored since then, none came to fruition.

Below you can see the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon being disassembled at the Lightning Academy Gym, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

The Ministry of Defense of Georgia and the US Embassy in Georgia have published news articles telling about a US-funded program of equipping the Georgian Defense Forces with 600 M249 SAW light machine guns. The program includes a two-week weapon familiarization course for the Georgian military personnel conducted by US advisors. Half of the course was dedicated to field training held in the Krtsanisi training center and included various drills and target engagements at 100 to 600-meter distances.

FN America have confirmed that the US Army has awarded them a contract to deliver an unspecified number of new M249 Squad Automatic Weapons. The contract is due to be fulfilled by 2025 with deliveries set to begin soon.

Photo Of The Day – A lot of people have their own TV game racing simulators at home, so why can’t I have a .50 Caliber machine gun simulator? I mean, I want one really badly now that I’ve seen they exist.

Archipelago Endeavor is an annual, bilateral integrated field-training exercise, conducted to promote interoperability, strengthen partnerships, and enhance strategic and tactical cooperation between the U.S. and Swedish Marines.

In previous Photos Of The Day articles we have taken a look at the Idaho Army National Guard reference style pictures of the M107 Semi-Automatic Long Range Sniper Rifle and the M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System.