The M73 and M219 are 7.62 mm NATO caliber

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...

s designed for tank use. NATO no longer uses them, but they were used on the

M48 Patton The M48 Patton is an American first-generation main battle tank (MBT) introduced in February 1952, being designated as the 90mm Gun Tank: M48. It was designed as a replacement for the M26 Pershing, M4 Sherman, M46 and M47 Patton tanks, and w ...

and

M60 Patton The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...

MBT series (including the

M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle The M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle (CEV) is a full-tracked vehicle used for breaching, obstacle removal, and pioneering operations. Production commenced in 1965 and ceased in 1987. A total of 312 of all variants of these armored engineer vehicles w ...

), as well as the

MBT-70 The MBT-70 (German: ''KPz 70 or KpfPz 70'') was an American– West German joint project to develop a new main battle tank during the 1960s. The MBT-70 was developed by the United States and West Germany in the context of the Cold War, intende ...

prototype vehicles, and on the

M551 Sheridan The M551 "Sheridan" AR/AAV ( Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle) was a light tank developed by the United States and named after General Philip Sheridan, of American Civil War fame. It was designed to be landed by parachute and to ...

Armored Reconnaissance / Airborne Assault Vehicle (AR/AAV). They were also used in a twin mount in the turret of the V-100 Commando (M706) light armored car during the Vietnam War. Also used on the M60A1 Tank.

Design and development

Designed primarily as a coaxial machine gun by the

Rock Island Arsenal The Rock Island Arsenal comprises , located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. It lies within the state of Illinois. Rock Island ...

and produced by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

, the M73 was developed as a replacement for the M1919A4E1, M1919A5, and M37 machine guns that continued to serve in the immediate post–World War II environment. The ''Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M73'' was officially adopted in 1959. It is an air-cooled, recoil-operated machine gun, but also using cartridge gases to boost recoil. Though designed as a simplified alternative to the M1919 series, it is of almost identical weight. The weapon is fitted with a quick-change barrel, pull-chain charging assembly, and can be made to feed from the left or the right hand side (though the left-hand feed is more common). An attempt to make the M73 useful as a flexible

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

gun saw the weapon fitted with sights and a

pistol grip On a firearm or other tools, a pistol grip is a distinctly protruded handle underneath the main mechanism, to be held by the user's hand at a more vertical (and thus more ergonomic) angle, similar to the how one would hold a conventional pis ...

trigger as the ''Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M73C''. Equally unpopular, very few of these weapons were produced. Sources claim that it saw limited use in Vietnam.Ezell, 1988. p. 418 The M73 suffered from numerous malfunctions and was prone to jamming. An improved M73E1 was eventually developed in 1970 with a simplified ejection system, being type classified as the ''Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M73A1''. In 1972, it was decided that this weapon was sufficiently different from its predecessor and was redesignated ''Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M219''. These weapons were eventually replaced by the M60E2 and

M240 machine gun The M240 – officially the Machine Gun, 7.62 mm, M240 – is the U.S. military designation for the FN MAG, a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns that chamber the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. The M240 has been used by t ...

, and vehicles still in service using the M73 series were refitted with these weapons.

Variants

M73

*Adopted in 1959

M73C

*Flexible infantry variant with sights and pistol grip. Concept development. Never entered service. *Used a special tripod, the XM132. It was a standard M2 mount for the .30 cal. Browning M1919A4 with an adapter to fit the M73C.

M73A1/M219

*Developed in 1970 as an improved version with simplified ejection mechanism attempting to reduce chronic jamming *Redesignated in 1972 as the M219

References

;Citations ;Bibliography *Ezell, Ed. ''Small Arms Today, 2nd Edition.'' Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1988. . *Gervasi, Tom. ''Arsenal of Democracy III: America's War Machine, the Pursuit of Global Dominance''. New York, NY: Grove Press, Inc, 1984. .

External links

*
M73 machine gun at Modern Friearms website
{{DEFAULTSORT:M73 Machine Gun 7.62×51mm NATO machine guns Infantry weapons of the Cold War Cold War firearms of the United States Medium machine guns Machine guns of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s