BlackFive

Nobody likes humping the pig, ask Matt. And no that was not an obscene reference. Machine guns are heavy, and now our troops in A-Stan can bring more scunion on patrol.

U.S. Army infantry units are fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan with a special operations forces machine gun that’s 30 percent lighter than the standard M240B but still packs the killing power of 7.62mm NATO.

Army weapons officials are fielding several hundred MK 48 MOD 1 machine guns in an effort to lighten the heavy loads ground forces, especially machine-gunners, struggle to carry over the country’s unforgiving terrain. The MK 48, made by FN Manufacturing LLC, was first adopted by Navy SEAL teams in 2000. The elite commando units needed a reliable 7.62mm machine gun that was light enough to carry on fast-moving raids and other special missions......

Dave Hall, a retired Navy SEAL team senior chief petty officer, described the MK 48 as “simple to operate, simple to take apart” and “very, very reliable.”

While deployed in Afghanistan in 2005, Hall’s team primarily used the MK 48 mounted in pairs atop their vehicles. His unit didn’t need to carry its MK 48s in the dismounted role, but he agreed that the weapon is light enough that “if you need to break it off the vehicle and use it somewhere else, you could.”