#Mg3
HK’s Next-Gen Twist on the FN Minimi - The MG43
In the late 1990s, the famous German company Heckler & Koch set out to build a new 5.56x45 NATO belt-fed light machine gun for the German Army that could challenge the FN Minimi/M249, which was widely used by many NATO nations. Somehow, they used the Minimi/M249, which was designed by Ernest Vervier at FN Herstal, as the basis for the HK design and improved it. The project first appeared under the designation MG43, which is a conventional, gas-operated design that incorporates all current trends in small-arms development. HK’s design incorporated improvements to withstand heavy use and adverse conditions, and one interesting feature was the weight; the initial MG43 weighed 14.10 lbs. (6.4 kg).
