Weapon Name- M232 LMG - Mod 1
Round Type- .338 Lapua
Over-all length- 34 inches, 38 inches, 42 inches
Barrel length- 24, 28, 32 inches
Weight- 27.5 lb
Rate of Fire- 600 RPM
Feed Mechanism- Belt Fed
Round Capacity- 100+
Effective Range- 1500 meters
Range- 2500 meters
Accuracy- 1 MOA, .8 MOA, .6 MOA
Accessories- Picatinny Rail
Quick switch firing mechanism- N/A
Scope/Sights- Picatinny Rail
Muzzle Velocity- 19.44 g (300 gr) Lapua Scenar GB528 VLD, 855 m/s (2,800 ft/s) 7,100 J (5,260 ft·lbf)
Firing System- Chain gun Metal Storm
Miscellaneous/electronic information- Essentially a caseless double barreled .338 Lapua designed for sustained, accurate fire from a light machine gun, providing a mix between a marksmen weapon and machine gun.
Basic Information
The weapon is essentially a caseless double barreled .338 Lapua metal storm weapon, designed for sustained, accurate fire from a light machine gun, a mix between a marksmen weapon and machine gun. In the original Metal Storm weapon designs, the weapons functioned much differently than in the current configuration. The propellant immediately behind the projectile closest to the muzzle of the gun barrel was ignited by an electronically fired primer, the projectile was set in motion, and at the same time a reactive force acted on the remaining stacked projectiles in the barrel, pushing them backwards. By design, the remaining projectiles would distort under this load, expanding radially against the gun barrel wall. However, in the newer design, the electronic firing mechanism and caseless powder merely serve as a method to ignite the powder, and the rounds themselves are loaded like a traditionally semiautomatic weapon, albeit powered by an electric motor like a chain gun. Being electronically controlled, the fire and control mechanism of the weapon is substantially easier to operate (and thus the safety mechanics as well) and the propellant is easier to ignite without fear of overheating or cook offs due to the heat and impact sensitive propellants used in traditional firearm. Like most chain gun, the weapon rarely jams, jamming only approximately once every 30,000 rounds, and clears them immediately. With an externally powered mechanism, the reliability increases dramatically, by eliminating the problems that result from the poor consistency of gunpowder. In this way, the weapon operates on battery power, which while more reliable and accurate, requires an external power source. To a lesser extent, it also reduces the size and weight of the weapon, which is a significant feature.
There is not only an emphasis on reliability with the machine gun, but accuracy and a short overall length. The M232 LMG bolt is like a Mac-10 in that it partially encapsulates the chamber, which helps to seal the round when firing. This significantly shortens the overall length of the weapon, but still requires enough length to allow the round in, feed in to the chamber, and pass the belt fed mechanism. As the weapon is powered by an electric motor and is not powered by the force of the bullet, it is significantly more reliable and has substantially less recoil. This also gives the weapon somewhat enhanced accuracy, as without reciprocating parts while the gun fires, it functions similarly to a bolt action in that it reduces the impact on the barrel harmonics by reducing the vibrations that a traditional semiautomatic otherwise would have. The weapon bolt locking mechanism functions similarly to a bolt action, being locked firmly in place while firing, and openly opening after the round has left the barrel. The weapon could be thought of as a straight pull bolt action, similar to the Swiss k31, powered by an "electronic arm" to help cycle the weapon automatically. With a rear and front helical bolt locking mechanism that helps to enhance accuracy, similar to the lee-enfield or the FR-F1, and a muzzle break that not only helps to dampen barrel vibrations and that's muzzle ports matches the grooves the rifling in the barrel which helps limit distortion to the projectile as it's leaving the barrel, the accuracy is enhanced further. The barrel is free floating to help diminish any outside vibrations, and has no hole drilled where a gas port would normally be or gas piston which also helps to increase accuracy again. The weapon typically fires from a closed bolt, which improves the accuracy as the expense of increasing the temperature of the weapon substantially as it is unable to vent it through the open chamber. However, the dual barrel design along with the thermal sleave and fluted barrel allows it to more easily dissipate and absorb the heat generated by the weapon, and the weapon automatically switches to an open bolt when it reaches a critical temperature to prevent overheating, similar to the FN HAMR. With all of this combined, the weapon achieves an incredibly high level of accuracy for a machine gun, while still maintaining good heat resistance to help maintain a high rate of fire when needed, allowing it to fulfill multiple roles. In this way the weapon can serve as either a sniper rifle or machine gun, and has an incredibly long range, providing substantially better utility and functionality to the squad.
The weapon uses a quick detachable polygonal cobalt chrome gain twist "flow formed" 6 groove 1:10 inch (1 complete turn in 7inches / 254mm) right hand turn barrel; the barrel is made of an alloy that contains more than 50 percent cobalt. The barrel is roughly 13% heavier than standard steel barrels, but is more erosion and corrosion-resistant and is designed to retain high strength during long-term exposure to high temperatures. Cobalt alloys are frequently used in the aerospace industry, such as the hot-gas section of turbine engines. A proof of concept M240 7.62mm x 51mm NATO barrel, in practice, had 24,000 rounds test-fired through it, causing it to reach temperatures of 1,100 degrees, without failure. A steel barrel would have failed under such treatment. The barrel itself, combined with polygonal rifling, is extremely durable, and has a minimum 30,000 round life, with even greater life expectancy given it's other features, at the cost of slightly reduced accuracy. The gain twist in particular not only enhances the accuracy of the weapon, but also dramatically increases it's life. As the first 4 inches and last 4 inches of the barrel receive the greatest wear, the gain twist allows a more gradual application of the rifling, thus providing less friction to the bullet and the barrel, which both increases accuracy and durability, as well as the velocity of the bullet. The barrels come in 24, 28, and 32 inch length variations.
Firing a caseless variant of the .338 Lapua, the weapon possesses a number of unique properties. Approximately 25 grams per round after including the weight of the belt, the weapon is relatively powerful in comparison to ordinary rifle rounds despite it's relatively light weight. Producing around 7,100 joules, the cartridge utilizes a 19.4 gram round traveling at nearly 855 m/s; the round has an extremely high ballistic coefficient, with a G1 BC of .768, giving it an incredible range and relatively high long range efficiency. The weapon not only possess better anti-material capabilities than the .308, but can maintain it's velocity and accuracy at at much further ranges, allowing it to carry this power to even farther ranges. Being extremely accurate, even out of a machine gun, and with the gun being relatively lightweight for it's power, the weapon can blend the capabilities of a machine gun and sniper rifle, yielding a much more versatile and capable weapons platform, which is very useful strategically. The high power is useful in it's own right, capable of piercing light level III armor out to 600 meters without an armor piercing round, and the weapon is capable of propelling an explosive bullet capable of penetrating slightly over an inch of RHA steel. While very useful in an antimaterial role or for piercing armor, it's high accuracy and long ranges lends it to the sniper role as well. In this way the weapon can not only perform the role of a machine gun, sniper rifle and anti-material weapon, but a specialized niche role as well, providing covering fire for troops at nearly twice the range of the standard .308 with relative ease. Combined with the fact the weapon has fairly lightweight ammunition for it's power (roughly the same as a cased .308 ), it's smaller size, longer range, greater power and high rate of fire allows it to fulfill an incredibly broad range of capabilities, making it exceptionally effective in the heavy weapons role.
With a muzzlebreak and extensive recoil buffer system, extending out to the stock, the weapon experiences little to any functional recoil on the user. It's air cooling barrel shroud and thermal sleave additionally functions as a suppressor, which helps to mask the report of the weapon. Being extremely large, and mixed with the weapons low rate of fire, it can help reduce the firing signature of the weapon, thus allowing the individuals to remain in their position and levy heavy fire for longer periods of time, without being noticed. The weapon is almost impossible to hear past 200 yards, and creates very little kickback of surrounding material such as sand or dust, making it harder to spot the individual; this effect is magnified against thermal scopes, as the suppressor also helps reduce the muzzle flash that would ordinarily be present with most weapon, and thermal sleave helps reduce the chance of the weapon being seen at a distance. Like a bullpup, the FG42 or the M60, the mechanism extends fully in to the stock, reducing it's overall length dramatically, although it appears to be a regular rifle and possess a folding stock that must be extended for the weapon to fire (the mechanism moves back in to the stock during firing). The weapon typically is outfitted with a thermal scope and infrared laser. Given it's cost and complexity, this scope has been paired with the infrared laser range finder, which gives the weapon targeting capabilities explaining the direction of the barrel in relation to the target; visible only by the thermal vision camera, the laser provides the ability to detect the range of the target, improved night and day targeting capabilities, and the ability for the weapon to automatically aim for the user. While the user still is required to generally aim and fire the weapon, various automatic calculation inputs of the weapon allow it to generally aim for the user. While very slow to operate, it's automatic tracking capabilities and general ability to aim gives the user a general base from which to choose to operate, and additionally can align shots for the user. This can be useful if planning an ambush or in a prolonged conflict where several seconds were available. If minutes were available, the weapon could provide nearly 100% reliable accuracy despite the soldier's skill level, thus removing questionable aspects of the operation. It also provided general guidance to the user, thus allowing them to retain their bearings and generally get a fix on the target.
The weapon uses a blackbox round counter, similar to the one produced by FN, that's capable of being display by the scope ordinarily used by the weapon, or an additional pop up screen. The magazines utilize magnetic strips to allow them to be differentiated from each other easily; each magazine comes preloaded with a set amount of rounds, and as the spring moves forward after each round is loaded into the weapon, the blackbox is able to record how many rounds are left in the magazine, in addition to recording each time a round is fired by the weapon, and remembering it in relation to the magazine. While the amount of rounds can be preloaded in each magazine to a specified amount, and this number can be entered into the weapon, it additionally can roughly gauge the amount of rounds in each magazine by it's spring placement, indicating how many rounds are left. Like most weapons of it's type, it is made of high strength polymer coated composites. This is similar to that found on the magpul series of accessories, the glock, the P90, and the XM8. The material is more or less high strength steel and aluminum coated in the composite polymers. The polymers provide greater temperature and corrosion resistance than most metals, and a harder to warp and scratch than metals, making them a more ideal material to be exposed to the world than metal.
