#Minimi

The Czech Ministry of Defense has announced on 12/21/2021 that it will be purchasing 949 FN Herstal manufactured Minimi Light machine guns in a CZK1.12 Billion ($50.73 Million) deal with the Czech company, CB Servis Centrum SRO. This deal also includes optics, armor kits, and travel cases. The purchase includes both the 5.56x45mm chambered Minimi light machine gun, as well as the 7.62x51mm chambered Maximi light machine gun.

Photo Of The Day – We’re happy to see that the life of exhibitions is going back to normal. FN Herstal are exhibiting at DEFEA 2021 in Greece next week. There are no real new firearms to be exhibited, but FN Herstal attached a few really nice photos to their press release for us to enjoy. Their highlights will be the FN SCAR family of rifles, the 5.7x28mm weapon systems, the FN MINIMI and the FN MAG machine guns. They will also show their Sea deFNder remote weapon system.

In today’s Photo Of The Day, we travel back in time and stay in the present at the same time. We’re in Norway for the 75th anniversary celebration of the reconquest of Narvik during World War 2.

Norway’s Armed Forces are using the FN Minimi Light Machine Gun (5,56×45 NATO) since the late 80s. As late as 2011 they bought another 1,900 of them. They are in use with forces like the HJK/ FSK, KJK, and MJK.

We have already seen the 6.5mm CT Carbine prototype brought out by Textron for the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, but TFB also got an up close and personal look at Textron’s cased telescoped machine guns. Textron has two different cased telescoped belt fed weapons in testing right now: A 5.56mm CT light machine gun, and a 7.62mm CT medium or general purpose machine gun.

At the 2017 Association of the US Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting, Textron System displayed for the very first time their firing 6.5mm CT Carbine prototype. Previously, only non-firing mockups had been shown to the public, but after successful tests this summer the real thing was brought out to show at the conference, where TFB got its first look at the weapon.

The elusive Tokar-2 5.45mm belt-fed machine gun made an appearance at the recent Rosgvardia Open House event late last month. The event demonstrated weapons and equipment being used by the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia), and was open to the public. Russian media outlet Armytex posted pictures of the event to their page on the social media site VK.com, including photos of the Tokar-2:

Not long after SHOT Show, I got the chance to interview Mrs. Kori Phillips, former program officer for the Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program, and current program officer for the Cased Telescoped Small Arms Systems (CTSAS) program. We talked at length about both programs, the technology they developed, and the state of lightweight ammunition today. The interview, which spans fifty-five questions, will be broken up into three sections, each covering questions about different aspects of the program, to be published monthly once each in March, April, and May-wait, hold on,

Not long after SHOT Show, I got the chance to interview Mrs. Kori Phillips, former program officer for the Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program, and current program officer for the Cased Telescoped Small Arms Systems (CTSAS) program. We talked at length about both programs, the technology they developed, and the state of lightweight ammunition today. The interview, which spans fifty-five questions, will be broken up into three sections, each covering questions about different aspects of the program, to be published monthly once each in March, April, and May-wait, hold on,

Not long after SHOT Show, I got the chance to interview Mrs. Kori Phillips, former program officer for the Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program, and current program officer for the Cased Telescoped Small Arms Systems (CTSAS) program. We talked at length about both programs, the technology they developed, and the state of lightweight ammunition today. The interview, which spans fifty-five questions, will be broken up into three sections, each covering questions about different aspects of the program, to be published monthly once each in March, April, and May. This first installment deals primarily with the history of the LSAT and subsequent CTSAS programs, with a little bit of the ammunition technology thrown in.

The Land Component of the Belgian Armed Forces will soon be retiring the venerable 7.62x51mm MAG M2 (FN MAG medium machine gun) for FN Herstals 7.62x51mm Minimi Mk3. Specifically 242 machine guns will be bought with an order of 2 million Euros from the countries own FN Herstal. The article mentions that this will be enough to have 3 machine guns per platoon of 30, thus making it a squad machine gun. I’m not sure if this is how the Belgium Army operates or if it is a editing mistake, but previously having a medium machine gun per squad slows it down and is where the Squad Automatic Weapon concept importantly plays in.

A report from Jane’s highlights a move within the British Army to review the requirements and usage of their LMG, the famously nicknamed “Minimi” (FN Para Minimi), and their M6-640 Commando 60 mm mortar system. Both of these weapon systems are currently fireteam (Minimi) and platoon assets (mortar). Essentially, what is going on here, is that the British Army has unofficially concluded that their L85A2 Under Barrel Grenade Launchers (UBGLs) and their L129A1 Sharpshooter rifles (7.62 LMT ARs), have essentially beaten the Minimi and the M6-640 out of a job. In that, the UBGL and the Sharpshooter are more than sufficient for taking on area targets, being an indirect fire asset, and suppressing the enemy than the mortar system and the Minimi are. So why have both sets which would further burden a platoon, when one set is just as efficient, is the question that the British Infantry will be reviewing in the upcoming months.

We love our readers. No really, we do. You send us lots of great stuff from all the tradeshows around the world. One of your eagle-eyed kin spotted the upcoming Astra MG556 5.56 semi-auto rifle. Externally very similar to the M249 SAW or FN MiniMi, the Astra is a closed-bolt weapon that feeds from the magazine port only.

New Zealand Defence Force is switching from the 5.56mm FN Minimi to the 7.62mm FN Minimi as their standard Light Support Weapon (LSW).

Copies of the FN Minimi have been photographed in use by Chinese police.