ST Kinetics 50MG

     Notes: Design work on the 50MG was begun in 1983 by ST Kinetics (then called CIS – Chartered Industries of Singapore).  Their first idea was simply to simplify, lighten and improve the M-2HB, but this idea was quickly discarded and the Singaporeans started fresh. ST Kinetics states that the design has been quite successful in the export market.

     The 50MG is a gas-operated weapon with a conventional design for .50 BMG-firing heavy machineguns; the rear part of the weapon contains most of the mechanism, and it uses a spade-grip-type trigger group, firing only from tripods, pintles, or other vehicle mounts.  The 50MG is a dual-feed gun; it can have two belts loaded at once on both sides of the top of the receiver, and a switch selects which belt will be fired.  The ammunition belts used can be standard disintegrating link belts or non-disintegrating link belts (as found sometimes on helicopter door guns).  Case ejection is from the bottom of the receiver.  The 50MG is a modular design, which allows the feed mechanism to be changed to exclusively left or right-handed feed, a trigger module which either does or does not allow semiautomatic fire, and a quick-change barrel which requires no headspace and timing adjustments (which may be of several lengths, though ST Kinetics has offered only one so far).  The modular design also allows the 50MG to be adapted to internal vehicular, aircraft, and helicopter mounts, or be installed in gun pods for aircraft and helicopters. The 44.9-inch barrel is lighter than that of the M-2HB, yet allows for better heat dispersion, and the barrel is tipped by a muzzle brake.  The cyclic rate of fire may be varied from 400-600 rpm by adjusting the gas regulator (though this is not important from a Twilight 2000 rules standpoint), and it also allows the gunner to compensate for fouling during sustained firing.  The 50MG requires some kind of mount for firing, but can be put on US, NATO, Russian, East European, and Chinese tripods – it can fit on virtually any tripod manufactured or used in the world today except the lightweight ones used by some of the lighter machineguns.  Sights consist of M-2HB-type iron sights, but a special sight bracket is also installed that allows for the use of most NATO-standard optics.