Turkish MMT Machine Gun Completes NATO Qualification Tests
On December 17, MKE, the largest Turkish state-owned firearms manufacturer, announced that their MMT machine gun completed NATO qualification tests and was cleared for serial production. Previously, our fellow TFB writer Lynndon Schooler, wrote a detailed article about this machine gun.
MMT is essentially a version of the PK/PKM machine gun that retains all the main features of its Soviet predecessor: two-stage feed system, quick-change barrel and feeding from the right side. Evidently, MKE weapon design engineers respect the motto “if it ain't broke, don't fix it”.
However, they made a few interesting changes: first, the trigger mechanism on MMT is detachable, which was not the case on the PKM. They also added the Picatinny rail on the receiver cover and the new brass deflector that redirects brass to the 10 o’clock direction.
According to MKE, in order to complete the NATO qualification, shooters at the factory fired over 250,000 rounds and passed over 40 different tests. Overall, the development and testing of MMT took over 13 years; the project was first announced in 2012.
Now, it seems that MMT is essentially the lightest 7.62x51 machine gun available to NATO countries. It weighs only 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds), while the M240 (FN MAG) weighs 12 kg (27 lbs). Even the new HK421 machinegun from Heckler&Koch, which was introduced last year, weighs 8.5 kg (18.7 lbs).
According to MKE, even before the completion of NATO qualifications, several African militaries reached out with requests to procure MMT machineguns. But it is unlikely that African armies would be the main users of this machine gun.
Within Turkey, multiple law enforcement agencies use PKM as their main machine gun, and it would make sense to replace aging Soviet PKMs chambered in 7.62x54 caliber with domestically manufactured MMT.
On top of that, some NATO countries that previously were a part ofthe Warsaw Pact might be interested in MMT, but in that case, the Turkish PKM would have to compete with Bulgarian MG-M2, Polish UKM-2000 and Serbian M20 machineguns.
Vladimir Onokoy is a small arms subject matter expert and firearms instructor. Over the years he worked in 20 different countries as a security contractor, armorer, field analyst, product manager, and consultant. His articles were published in the Recoil magazine, Small Arms Review, Small Arms Defence Journal, Overt Defense and Silah Report. He also worked as the historical consultant for movies and weapon history books, namely "Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov" series, "Small Arms of WW2: Soviet Union" and the 3rd edition of "AK-47: The Grim Reaper". Email: machaksilver at gmail dot com
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Many years ago I had a chance to shoot a UKM-2000. The PKM is my favorite MG, and a left-side fed 7.62Nato chambered PKM is a wet dream.