General-purpose machine gun

Machine gun adaptable for several light and medium roles The MG-42 type general-purpose machine guns in both bipod and tripod configurations. The tall tripod on the right is for anti-aircraft use. A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles. Many medium machine guns are also considered general-purpose machine guns as they are broadly useful across a variety of infantry roles and can be mounted to a wide range of vehicles, aircraft, or static mounts; however the overlap is not complete, as not all MMGs are GPMGs and not all GPMGs are MMGs. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered for various fully powered cartridges such as the 7.62×51mm NATO, 7.62×54mmR, 7.5×54mm French, 7.5×55mm Swiss and 7.92×57mm Mauser, and can be configured for mounting to different stabilizing platforms from bipods and tripods to vehicles, aircraft, boats and fortifications, usually as an infantry support weapon or squad automatic weapon. History World War II German Volksturm using a MG-42 An early GPMG was the MG 34, designed in 1934 by Heinrich Vollmer of Mauser on the commission of Na