The American company Barrett Firearms is primarily famous and known for its excellent M82 large-caliber anti-material rifle. However, the company's work is not limited to the creation of only high-precision weapons for snipers. No less interesting developments are the lightweight Barrett 240LW / LWS machine guns, which give the American army's standard M240 machine gun hope for a second youth.
The M240 is far from a new machine gun. This 7.62mm weapon has been widely used by the American military since the late 1970s. The M240 is a single machine gun that is a modification of the successful Belgian FN MAG 58 machine gun. It is adopted by the US Army and Marine Corps and a dozen other states. This machine gun is widely used by the infantry, and is also installed on various ground vehicles, helicopters and boats. At the same time, a lightweight modification of the Barrett 240LW machine gun appeared relatively recently, in 2014.
The standard version of the machine gun widely used by the American army is the M240B. This machine gun is in service with the ground forces, marines, navy, air force and coast guard. In the infantry version, it is equipped with a butt and bipod. The modernization of the machine gun was carried out again in 2014 by specialists from the weapons company Barrett Firearms, founded in 1982 and based in Tennessee. Specialists of the company, famous for the creation of large-caliber sniper rifles, have created a lightweight version of a single machine gun, designated Barrett 240LW.
M240B
It should be noted that the US Army has been looking for powerful and, at the same time, light small arms support for regular units and special operations forces for quite a long time. The armament already includes the Mk.48 mod.0 and Mk.48 mod.1 machine guns. These light machine guns have been developed specifically for the US Special Operations Forces since 2001. In 2003, a new machine gun, created by the American division of the famous Belgian company FN Hersta, was officially adopted by the US Army. At the same time, the new machine gun does not completely suit the fighters of the American special forces. Compared with the same 7.62 mm single machine gun M240, which has a receiver resource of 100 thousand shots, the resource of Mk.48 machine guns is limited to 50 thousand shots.
It is quite obvious that the higher the resource of small arms, the more they will remain in service and the cheaper such weapons will cost the armed forces (the purchase of new models is less frequent). At the same time, the mobility of the Mk.48 mod.0 machine guns, whose mass without ammunition and optics is only 8.2 kg, significantly exceeded the mobility of standard army M240 machine guns, which were almost 4 kilograms heavier. That is why the American army was interested in the appearance of a lightweight version of its main single machine gun, the M240. The new model, which Barrett engineers worked on, was supposed to lose 2.5 kilograms compared to the M240B model.
In a single Barrett 240LW machine gun (LW stands for Light Weight), designer Ronnie Barrett and his team of like-minded people tried to bring to life his idea of creating a lightweight machine gun for the American army M240, which dates back to the 1950s from the Belgian machine gun FN MAG 58. A similar work in 2010 was already done by order of the American military by FN Herstal, which presented the M240B (Bravo) model. This machine gun was almost entirely made of titanium, and its weight was reduced by almost 1.8 kilograms. Since the patent for the FN MAG 58 has already expired, Barrett also decided to present its version of the modernization of a good machine gun, in order to then ensure its production at its own plant in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Barrett 240LW
Unlike the Belgian colleagues from the FN Herstal company, the American designers did not focus exclusively on the titanium structure, they tried to make significant changes directly to the device of a single machine gun. And although the Barrett company did not officially take part in the army project to modernize the M240 machine gun, it does not lose hope of receiving orders for its development - not least of all this is due to the latest geopolitical events that have complicated the export of titanium to the United States from China and Russia.
As noted in the Barrett company, a single 7, 62-mm machine gun Barrett 240LW was bought for comprehensive testing by a number of potential customers from three states, including two NATO countries from Northern Europe. In addition, the American company has been a supplier of small arms for the armed forces for many years, therefore it is well aware of the modern requirements for models of small arms and the experience of its real combat use in local armed conflicts in recent years in Afghanistan and Iraq.
To circumvent the use of only one scarce and rather expensive titanium, the specialists of the American arms company made their own changes to the design of the M240 light machine gun. Their main innovation, which distinguishes the Barrett 240LW model from the M240 / MAG 58 machine guns, is the welded receiver structure, which is made of 4140 steel and consists of two halves, instead of the old riveted receiver. It is curious that the body of the receiver was reinforced with stiffeners, which are located so that they form a truss structure, which resembles building structures, the hull of a ship or the fuselage of an aircraft. Such an increase had a positive effect on the rigidity and strength of the machine gun receiver, while making it possible to save valuable grams of the mass of all weapons. The rejection of rivets has reduced the number of parts that make up the receiver, from 64 to just two.
Barrett 240LW
Another equally important innovation was the emergence of a retractable telescopic stock, which has a hydraulic buffer inside to soften the recoil from shots. The barrel of the machine gun is equipped with longitudinal grooves for its entire length, which also plays a role in reducing the mass of the weapon. In addition, Barrett engineers paid attention to small details, for example, if you take a closer look at the machine gun, you will notice that the folding sights of the weapon have been completely redesigned. At the same time, the handle, intended for carrying the machine gun, was moved from the gas tube to the receiver itself to reduce its warming up during firing. It can be folded in both directions, which makes it easier for the shooter to use the telescopic sight. The lightweight forend of the Barrett 240LW machine gun is equipped with special KeyMod interface mounts.
Also, Barrett engineers replaced the folding quick-release telescopic bipods, borrowing them from their famous M82 large-caliber sniper rifle. Since the M240 machine gun is a single machine gun of the American army, it has a mount for installation on a standard M192 tripod machine or a special adapter that provides easy mounting of weapons on other types of machine tools or machine gun installations on various equipment.
The variant of the Barrett 240LWS (Light Weight Short) machine gun, which appeared and was first introduced only in 2017, differs from the 240LW model only by a reduced barrel length - 18.5 inches (469.9 mm) instead of 21.5 inches and, accordingly, less weight. the mass of such a machine gun dropped to 8, 98 kg. This version of the machine gun is intended for arming small mobile units, as well as special forces and is a full-fledged alternative to the Mk 48 machine gun. Both Barrett 240LW and LWS machine guns are available today in standard black (Black) and sand (Flat Dark Earth) color options.
The performance characteristics of the Barrett 240LW:
Caliber - 7, 62x51 NATO.
Weight - 9.4 kg.
Barrel length - 546, 1 mm.
Overall length - 1193.8 mm (1092.2 mm with stock folded).
Firing range - 1100 m (effective).
Rate of fire - 550 rds / min.
Food - tape (50, 100, 200 rounds).
