The XM312 is a heavy machine gun derived from the

XM307 The XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon (ACSW) was a developmental 25 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher with programmable airburst capability. It is the result of the ''OCSW'' or ''Objective Crew Served Weapon'' project. It is lightweight and ...

25 mm

autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...

and chambered for the .50 BMG cartridge. It was designed in response to a request by the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

for a replacement for the aging

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, w ...

heavy machine gun, and as a complement to the heavier

XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon The XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon (ACSW) was a developmental 25 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher with programmable airburst capability. It is the result of the ''OCSW'' or ''Objective Crew Served Weapon'' project. It is lightweight and ...

grenade launcher. It is capable of being converted quickly into an XM307 with a small number of parts and a few minutes of work at the unit level (and vice versa from the XM307). The Fiscal Year 2008 Appropriations bill awarded $10 million to General Dynamics for the XM307 and XM312. In May 2008 the U.S. Army had awarded General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products (GDATP) a $9 million contract to develop a lightweight .50-caliber machine gun called the

XM806 The XM806 Lightweight .50 Caliber Machine Gun (LW50MG) was a developmental .50 caliber belt-fed heavy machine gun.

to supplement the Browning M2. The XM806 was canceled in 2012. The Army at present will continue buying new M2s and Mk 19s to replenish the current guns that are wearing out.

Specifications

* Weight: ** Weight: (weapon only). ** Weight: (ground mount system). ** Weight: (whole system). * Dimensions: 9.9W × 7.2H × 61.5L max. inches (251 mm × 183 mm × 1562 mm) (52.5L, 1334 mm) charged). * Portability: Man portable or

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...

mountable. * Stability: Up to 18 inch (460 mm) tripod height. * Operation: Currently a hybrid gas & recoil operating group. Gas powers the bolt mechanism while recoil drives the barrel/barrel extension and the feed system. Design changes are underway to totally eliminate the gas system to provide increased reliability and reduced complexity. * Environmental: Operationally insensitive to conditions. * Reliability: 6,000 MRBF (threshold) / 10,000 MRBF (objective). * Rate of fire: ** 260 rounds per minute (4.3 Hz)(cyclic). ** 40 rounds per minute (0.7 Hz) (sustained, without barrel change). In burst of five to seven rounds, the same as the M2HB. * Dispersion: Less than 1.1 milliradian, one sigma radius. * Range: Lethal and suppressive out to 2,000 meters. * Ammunition: .50 BMG M33 ball, M8, M20 &

Mk211 The Raufoss Mk 211 is a .50 BMG (12.7×99mm NATO) multi-purpose anti-materiel high-explosive incendiary/armor-piercing ammunition projectile produced by Nammo under the model name ''NM140 MP''. It is commonly referred to as ''multipurpose'' or ' ...

API, M903 SLAP. * Recoil: 300 foot-pounds (407 J) * Feed system: Weapon-mountable

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

can or feed from any can using bellmouth attachment. M9 rear stripping link—common with current M2 ammunition. Left hand feed, right hand eject of cases and links.

Program status

* September 2005: The XM312 is test fired by troops from the 1st Infantry Division at the Grafenwöhr Training Area in Germany.Soldiers test new weapons at Grafenwöhr - EUCOM

References

External links

* ttp://www.deagel.com/pandora/xm312_de00358001.aspx XM312 - Deagel {{DEFAULTSORT:Xm312 .50 BMG machine guns Machine guns of the United States