FN MAG
Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun
The FN MAG (French: Mitrailleuse d'Appui Général, English: General Purpose Machine Gun, lit. 'Machine gun for general support') is a Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale (FN) by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries and it has been made under licence in several countries, including Argentina, Canada, Egypt, India, and the United Kingdom.
The MAG is available in three primary versions: the standard, infantry Model 60-20 machine gun, the Model 60-40 coaxial machine gun for armoured fighting vehicles, and the Model 60-30 aircraft variant.
History
After World War II the Swedish Army, who used two 6.5×55mm versions of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) since the 1920s, wanted to replace them with a belt-fed version. FFV-Carl Gustaf tried to design a derivative, but their belt feeding mechanism (placed below the action, like on the BAR) did not pass military trials. Therefore FN Herstal was approached, and Belgian designers came up with the idea to flip the BAR action upside down and mate it with the proven MG 42 belt-feeding mechanism. The work was started in the late 1940s by Dieudonné Saive and finished by Ernest Vervier in 1953, with Swedish trials beginning in 1955.
The MAG served as a complement to the FN FAL battle rifle. It first entered production in 1958 (Ksp 58 chambered in 6.5×55mm), and it is sometimes referred to as the MAG-58.
Design details
The MAG Model 60-20 is an automatic, air-cooled, gas-operated machine gun, firing belt-fed 7.62×51mm NATO from an open bolt.
“FN MAG” enters the record as belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Belgian, general-purpose and machine can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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