For years now the British soldier-in-the-field has been bitching about the crappy Light Support Weapon version of the bug-ridden SA-80 rifle that they have been saddled with.
So I was delighted to see picture after picture of British Army and Royal Marines using the excellent Fabrique National Minimi Squad Automatic Weapon. British soldiers deserve proper weapons and at last they seem to be getting them.
Soldier of the 1st bn Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in action in Iraq, using the FN Minimi SAW
I hate to sound too flippant right now, but the “deadly Mini me?”
I’m sorry, but that one is a bit hard to resist.
From all accounts it’s a very good piece. As a veteran of Viet Nam, I can appreciate the lighter weight of the Minimi ot the US-operated SAW. Both weapons will fire from an attached box magazine, as seen in the photo displayed.
However, in the desert, where distance is often the infantryman’s friend, the 7.62 mm squad machine gun, like the now obsolete US M60 or even the GPMG gives you the ability to reach out and touch someone at a greater range.
The Minimi _is_ the M249 SAW.
Fabrique National? Wouldn’t be Belgian by any chance?
See also my earlier (15 October 2002) Samizdata piece “The grim tale of the SA80“.
Congrats on your missile? It’s working better than anyone had hoped!
I thought when I saw it that it was Belgian, too. But I googled, and discovered I was wrong. Baby, it’s American! (South Carolina, about as un-Belgian as you can get!)
Sorry to rock your world Steven but whilst the M249 is built in the USA, that is just a licence built version of the Fabrique National Minimi, which is built in several other places as well… so yes, the standard SAW used by the US Army is indeed a weapon from Belgium.
I suspect it would be much cheaper if we gave them all Kalashnikov’s. They always worked when I used them…