As such, when given the opportunity, they’ll make anything a bit more deadly. Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome is a famed Marine Corps motto because Marines often do more with less. Regardless, the AN/M2 would be the core of the Stinger. It certainly was not suited for infantry work. Related: The rifle setup Force Recon Marines carry into the fightĪdditionally, the gun used spade grips and lacked a stock of any kind. The need for man portable machine guns was high. In a dog fight, you need to be able to pour lead into a target, and the 1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute firing rate allowed for just that. Additionally, the AN/M2 offered a much higher firing rate than the standard M1919A6. To that end, the engineers utilized a thinner barrel and receiver.Īs a result, the M1919A6 weighed 32 pounds, and the AN/M2 weighed in at roughly 21 pounds. Lighter planes fly faster and longer, so trimming weight is critical. As such, it needed to be as light as possible. The AN/M2 was originally designed specifically for aircraft. Around the time of the invention of the Stinger, the Americans were using the M1919A6. Numerous variants of the M1919 existed, and that included the numerous modifications made to the weapon over the years. Related: How are automatic weapons actually used in combat? 30-06 cartridge that was the general infantry round used in rifles and automatic rifles at the time. The Browning M1919 was an American-made machine gun designed to provide suppressive fire. 30 AN/M2 an aircraft-modified version of the famed Browning 1919 belt-fed machine gun. Military naming conventions don’t exactly make sense, but the M2 in M2 Stinger comes from the. The Core of the Weaponįirst, when I say M2 and machine gun, I’m not talking about the famed Ma Deuce. The few Stingers that saw action were literally torn out of downed airplanes, modified for infantry use, and carried into the fight by a half dozen brave and hearty men–one of whom would earn a Medal of Honor with this DIY-death-dealer in hand.

The Stinger wasn’t just a machine gun designed and built for use as a mounted aircraft gun.

Japanese type 4 garand