New Precision Targeting on Historic .50-Cal Machine Gun Can Hit Enemy Drones

[Peter1469]

New Precision Targeting on Historic .50-Cal Machine Gun Can Hit Enemy Drones

The M2 .50 cal machine gun is the oldest weapon in continuous use in the US Army. It is an excellent heavy machine gun. And it is about to get better.

Maximum effective range? Line of sight.

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]The Army is revving up development and delivery of advanced targeting technology for its .50-cal machine gun to increase precision, widen the mission envelope and destroy challenging targets such as enemy drones, low-flying aircraft, light-skinned armored vehicles and troop concentrations. .

[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Senior Army officials say the service’s Rapid Equipping Force has been fast-tracking improved "slue-to-cue" technology, new sensors and emerging radar-based targeting technology to give the .50-Cal more precision accuracy.

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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]In service for decades, the .50-Cal has naturally been thought of as largely an area weapon able to lay down suppressive fire, enabling troops to maneuver by blanketing enemy targets with rounds. The weapon of course still has this function, yet technical efforts are underway to make .50-Cal targeting more precise, such that it could shoot down swarms of quadcopters or other commercially avail mini-drones configured for attack.

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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]The .50-Cal can fire up to 600-rounds per minute out to ranges of 7,000 yards, with an ideal attack range of 2,000 yards, Army information specifies.

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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Precision-guided weaponry, such as JDAMs from the air, have been operational for decades. GPS-guided land weapons such as Excalibur 155m artillery rounds or the larger GMLRS, Guided Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems, have been in combat since 2007 and 2008; engineering comparable guidance for smaller rounds, naturally, is a much more challenging task.[/COLOR]