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F-6. Two medium machine guns and crews are found in the weapons squad. (See figure F-2.) The M240B can be fired in the assault mode in emergencies, but normally is fired from the bipod or tripod platform. It also can be vehicle mounted. The platoon leader (through his weapons squad leader ) employs his M240B medium machine guns with a rifle squad to provide long range, accurate, sustained fires against dismounted Infantry, apertures in fortifications, buildings, and lightly-armored vehicles. The M240B also provides a high volume of short-range fire in self-defense against aircraft. Machine gunners use point, traversing, searching, or searching and traversing fire to kill or suppress targets.
F-7. Available M240B medium machine gun ammunition is classified as follows (see table F-3):
- M80 7.62-mm Ball. For use against light materiel and personnel.
- M61 7.62-mm Armor Piercing. For use against lightly-armored targets.
- M62 7.62-mm Tracer. For observation of fire, incendiary effects, signaling, and for training. When tracer rounds are fired, they normally are mixed with ball ammunition in a ratio of four ball rounds to one tracer round.
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Go Back To: U.S. Army FM 3-21.8: The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad