M60

The M60 (Formerly United States Machine Gun, Caliber 7.62 mm, M60) is a gun slight 7.62 x51mm NATO, designated GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun) that since its production has been in the service of the U.S. and other countries with support weapon to a squad or mounted on tanks, helicopters and other vehicles. Suffered over the years numerous updates and has been replaced by the FN MAG in various roles.

Features
The M60 machine gun is an air cooled, gas operated and fires from an open breech. And arm by a belt of bullets and ammunition with 100 normally has a bipod. It is used mainly as a weapon to fire suppression and to target effective range in size and mounted on a tripod of 1100m to the target area and bipod weapon 800m, 600m point target, moving target of 200m. The doctrine of the U.S. Marine Corps says that the M60 has effective range of 1500m in the hands of an experienced shooter.

When it was officially adopted in 1957 the M60 had many flaws in its construction. When tested on the ground was reasonably effective but in the course of the Vietnam war showed several problems. Among them was the fact that heavy, although the weapon of its kind among the lightest. The most common complaint of the soldiers was that the gun was unreliable, tended to jam and had other faults dirt when earned, which led the Israel Defense Forces do not want to take this weapon. The shot selector worked "backwards", since the positions of fire and security were in opposite direction to the M16 and the Colt M1911. If certain parts of the trigger group were poorly assembled, it was possible the gun shoot continuously acted after the trigger and there even after getting the finger. Also occurred from the cycle of extraction sheaths, jamming and consequently took the jam. The original model contained a grip that could get caught in carrier equipment and bring down the barrel, this party who was ousted by a button. There were also some problems relating to parts being too thin and can bend or break, and other pieces of easy wear, something that was avoided by building stronger parts. There was also the problem of pipe that, when it had to be changed due to high rates of fire and subsequent temperature rise had to be changed with gloves because his hands had to hold the pipe itself, and each barrel came with its own bipod which meant a partial dismantling of the gun barrel to exchange. These failures have led American troops to adopt the M1918A2 BAR for a few years as a weapon in support of the squadron.

Variants
Over the years, the M60 has undergone several revisions to correct problems or to adapt the gun to vehicles.
 * T161 - Drawing from experimental M60
 * M60 - Base model of the weapon, which entered service in 1957
 * M60E1 - Improved version that has never entered into mass production. The main differences lie in the replacement handle for the barrel and bipod that was integrated into the gas tube rather than the barrel. Exploited these differences in later versions.
 * M60E2 - Version used in vehicles as gun co-axial. This version does not have handles or butts and is electrically fired, despite having a mechanical shutter for redundancy. The gas pipe was extended the full length of the weapon.
 * M60B - Version of short duration M60D replaced with the version created for use in helicopters. It was not mounted, simply supported, lacked bipod and had a different grip.
 * M60C - Version for use in aircraft. Triggered electrically, hydraulically charged, electronically controlled by the pilot, did not have bipod, grip and sights.
 * M60D - Briefly, an improved version of the M60B. Similar to the M60C, which is not only controlled by the pilot.
 * M60E3 - Going around 1986, this version of "land" has improved many of the teething problems of the M60. Lighter, ambidextrous shot selector, support for universal handles, rear handle, among others. Due to the parties to be lighter, including the barrel, can not hold fire for so long and the gun breaks down more easily.
 * M60E4 - The last generation M60, contains subvariant. It looks like the M60E3, has internal improvements. Is not considered another version but an improvement on previous versions, since it also has variants for mounting on vehicles. There are versions with different lengths of pipe, with rails to power auxiliary devices, etc..

Operators

 * Australia
 * Brazil
 * Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * Cameroon
 * Colombia
 * Egypt
 * Greece
 * Indonesia
 * Israel
 * Laos
 * Malaysia
 * Peru
 * Philippines
 * South Korea
 * Taiwan
 * Thailand
 * Turkey
 * United Kingdom
 * United States
 * Vietnam
 * Yemen / Yemen