McNab - The FN Minimi Light Machine Gun

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Osprey Publishing,

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ISBN: 978-1-4728-1621-4 (PB)

ISBN: 978-1-4728-1623-8 (eBook)

ISBN: 978-1-4728-1622-1 (ePDF)

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

While this book is first and foremost a history of one particular type of machine gun, the FN Minimi, it is also in part the story of the ammunition the Minimi fires: the 5.5645mm NATO. This particular aspect of the narrative is replete with controversy, strong opinions, conflicting research, and above all the hunt for the perfect light machine gun (LMG). As will become clear, that quest is far from over.

Through navigation of these themes, it is evident that the FN Minimi is one of the most successful firearms concepts of the last half-century. Emerging from the legendary creativity of Fabrique Nationale (FN; also known as FN Herstal after its headquarters in Belgium) in the 1970s, the Minimi took the world of military firearms by storm. To date, it has been adopted by more than 75 countries, including as the standard LMG of the US armed forces, and has been battle-tested and trialed in every conceivable type of terrain, environment, and conflict. As we shall see, the assessment of the Minimi has, at different times and in various forms of service, been mixed. I will argue that the essential quality and fundamental performance of the gun itself are confirmed, as is its place in the tactical make-up of the modern infantry fire team.

Returning to the subject of ammunition, to understand the controversy surrounding the 5.56mm round we have to go back to the 1950s, when the postwar militaries were thinking about the next generation of infantry weapons. World War II had seen the introduction of the intermediate rifle round, at first in the form of the German 7.9233mm kurz (short) round for Nazi Germanys MP 44 Sturmgewehr, the worlds first true assault rifle. (A case can be made for the US M1 Carbine having introduced the intermediate round, but the latters straight case design and limited range qualify that claim somewhat.) What was intermediate about the 7.92mm kurz was that it essentially sat between the pistol round and rifle round in terms of power and performance. In practical terms, this meant that the MP 44 could comfortably handle full-automatic fire, unlike a shoulder- mounted weapon firing a full-power rifle cartridge, but the cartridge still delivered decent penetration and a flat trajectory over typical combat ranges (200600m; 219656yd).